Final Project - Timeline

Valdez, Alaska

Antonio Valdés y Fernández Bazán, Minister of Spanish Navy
www.kunst-fuer-alle.de

1790:  In 1790, Spanish explorer Salvador Fidalgo embarked on an exhibition to the Pacific Northwest in order to reestablish Spanish claim to areas in British Columbia and Alaska.  On June 15, he discovered a port which he named Puerto Valdez.  The port was named after the Minister of the Spanish Navy, Antonio Valdés y Fernández Bazán.

The birth of downtown Valdez
www.holabirdamericana.com

1896: When gold was found in August of 1896 at Rabbit Creek, a tributary of the Klondike River, thousands of people hoping to strike it rich set out for Valdez. Valdez became a popular destination for prospectors hoping to make it to the Klondike without having to go through Canada. The town’s population grew as it became a ‘tent city’ and businesses were opened to outfit prospectors with supplies.

An ambulance carries a man wounded from the shootout
Alaska Department of Education and Early Development

1906: In 1906, a different kind of resource was found near Valdez: mineral deposits. In order to move these valuable resources from the Kennicott Glacier to the coast, the decision was made to build a railroad to Valdez through the Keystone Canyon. Two businesses, the Alaska Syndicate and the Alaska Home Railroad, fought so competitively over the job that it resulted in the shooting deaths of at least two employees. The outcome left many Valdez residents without jobs and no investments.

1964: On Good Friday of 1964—March 27—one of the largest earthquakes in American history struck Alaska: the Good Friday Earthquake. It triggered an underwater landslide in Valdez, causing homes, docks, and land to slide into the ocean; three years later, the town was relocated to higher ground. 32 people were killed in Valdez as a result of the Good Friday Earthquake.

Real-time footage of the earthquake in Valdez

Alaska Film Archives

The end of the Trans Alaska Pipeline in Valdez
Alaska in Pictures

1977: Even though oil was found in 1968 on the North Slope, it wasn’t until 1977 that the Trans Alaska Pipeline was fully constructed and oil flowed from Prudhoe Bay to Valdez. The 800-mile pipeline took four years to build. Across the bay from the town of Valdez is the terminal that houses the oil, and is built on the northernmost ice-free port.

Tugboats tow the damaged oil tanker off the Bligh Reef
MSNBC

1989: On March 24, 1989, the oil tanker Exxon Valdez was headed out of Valdez for Long Beach, California, when it struck the Bligh Reef in Prince William Sound. Over 11 million gallons of oil were spilled into the ocean, creating one of the largest man-made environmental disasters in history. As a result of the spill, several species documented record-high deaths, including seat otters, bald eagles, and orcas.



Cause-Effect Statements


The discovery of gold in the Klondike Valley in 1896 generated a large arrival of continental Americans to travel to Valdez, causing the town’s population to swell.

When oil started to flow from Prudhoe Bay to Valdez in the 1970’s, the Alyeska Pipeline Service Company became the largest employer in Valdez, creating an economic and employment boom for local residents. The opposite occurred when the APSC moved its headquarters to Anchorage in later years.

In response to the Exxon Valdez oil spill in 1989, then Alaska Governor Steve Cowper issued an executive order requiring every oil tanker leaving Valdez to be escorted by no less than two tugboats.