Valdez Museums

Native Alaskan's rain gear

The town of Valdez has three museums. One started as a collection and then the lady sold things as gift from Alaska to tourists, but then donated her amazing collection of things for a museum. The second is a regular museum of the history of Valdez and surrounding area. The third is a scale model of "Old Valdez", and several movies about the earthquake that wiped out Valdez.

The earthquake on Good Friday 1964 totally ruined the town. Only the dock and harbor were wiped out that day, but the town sank more than 9 feet. The incoming tides were flooding much of the old town. It was decided that the whole town was built on the same soft glacier silt that the harbor had been on and they needed to move it. Three years later the entire town had been moved or rebuilt. What was left of the old town was burned to the ground.
After the earthquake of 64, Valdez had the awful Exxon Valdez oil spill. Many things have recovered in the last 20 years but there is still oil in the shore dirt and sand.
Jordan was interested in the oil pipeline that goes from Prudhoe Bay down to Valdez. That's 799 miles. It was a huge undertaking to complete this project.