Valdez

Valdez is surrounded by the Chugach Mountains in the Prince William Sound. As you can see….today was not showing Valdez at its best. When I asked at the Visitors Centre, this is normal weather or snow. Imagine winter….snow and dark You would have to be resilient.

To survive in Valdez ,  it has always been difficult. It was sold as a gateway to the Klondike…..straight up a glacier.     Not easy!

Eventually they built a road up Thompson Pass ….around the glacier…..but travel was not easiest. A horse drawn wagon..at least the furs will help. It did become a trade port , with some tourism.

In 1964 disaster happened. ( Yes ,we are in a museum….it’s raining.) There was an earthquake. Anyone on the wharf was lost.The whole area was affected. A local village ,that had been built in 1770 ,was destroyed with half the population by the tsunami that followed.

The town was evacuated and moved….literally , 52 houses were transported to New Valdez. All the remaining buildings were burnt. It must have felt like losing the town all over again. People started again
So I did find it amazing that they had their three original fire trucks. One even went to a fire.

Local history really well displayed, don’t you think ?  The model of the old town showing all the streets was spectacular. 

Now the other museum was totally different. It was based on a collection of two women. They used to go out to the remote villages. They were greeted like family and offered artifacts , beautiful handicrafts and art. Maxine would bring supplies and pay for the objects.
Suddenly you are trying to decide what would you collect…what is valuable to you?
 Maxine had a gift shop that sold all the objects to tourists. The art changed according to the demand for souvenirs. Masks, scrimshaw, carvings, dolls , arrowheads or clothing , what would you choose ? They were beautiful.  Better still, it gave a way local artists could be recognised for traditional skills and supplement their income.Now we would just get a tshirt, probably made in some other country and just printed with an Alaskan design.

Hunting trophies? 1929 it cost $1347 to go hunting for a week.That’s over $25,000 today.You could keep the skin and have it mounted or treated, but the skull went to a museum.It was your chance to be a frontier person. I think I’ll miss. You too?

 
Maxine had collected an amazing range of taxidermy animals.I thought they were beautiful even though  I wouldn’t want one on my wall.Look at this face…so cute.

Valdez became important again in March 1989. The Exxon Valdez ran aground and oil spilt . The extent the oil spread was over a thousand miles. People came from everywhere and Valdez was a centre point for the operation.The only good thing that came from this is the research facility in Seward.  It rehabilitates injured marine life and provides a facility to educate and research Arctic marine life. So no museum tomorrow. I promise you will even get to touch animals.