Day 46 - Valdez, Alaska

Day 46 - Valdez, AK

Saturday, July 23, 2011

By: Marge and Gene Arnott, 

Rig # 3.5

Today started out as another beautiful day in Alaska.  It seems only a couple of days ago we wrote our first blog entry.  Now we are writing our third and last one for this caravan.  How time flies when you’re having fun with so many good people who didn’t even know each other previously.

We are in Valdez, AK (pronounced Val-deez as a result of very early animosity toward the early Spanish explorers who discovered Valdez).  It is a free day so many of us took a guided tour of Valdez, which included a narrated bus tour of the town and learned something of the history of the town.  It should also be noted that one of the group had to be dug out of his coach, and thus was awfully close to being the latest last on board during the whole trip.

Can you identify the culprit?

Valdez was originally founded as a gold mining base camp to get to the Klondike but that was not very successful.  It later turned into a fishing village and small port in the northern-most ice-free port in Alaska and received a substantial portion of the supplies needed to build the northern part of the Alaska Highway and to defend Alaska in WWII.  Valdez was destroyed in 1964 in the earthquake that severely damaged Anchorage and much of the Southern part of the state.  Since Valdez had been built on glacial granite silt, the earthquake turned the powder to nearly a liquid, which caused the town to collapse and therefore the existing townsite was moved about 4 miles.  The new site allowed the town to be laid out in a rational, planned manner instead of just “happening” which is what most early towns did.



A bit of humor from a local church



Indian carving by Peter Toth

House for decoration prize,
the Golden Rock Award

Winter marker for fire hydrant

We viewed the Alaska Pipeline Terminal and learned something about its construction.  It and the pipeline were the most expensive projects ever built with private funding.  It cost $8 billion and was finished on schedule and under budget. 

An additional, unexpected, highlight of the tour was a behind the scenes tour of the salmon hatchery.  The hatchery was established in an attempt to replenish a depleting stock of salmon for recreational and commercial fishing and has so far been a success.



Fish ladder



Salmon hatchery



 

Several other people reported going sea kayaking, walking, touring museums, cleaning coaches, laundry, and probably a few naps, among other things.

To finish off another day, we had an Italian theme pot-luck dinner which allowed most of us to show off our considerable skills at a most favorite activity, EATING.

10:00 P.M.   It’s still light outside and it’s raining.  AGAIN.  Good night.