Military policy during World War II decreed that Blacks would not be sent to northern climes or active duty, but after the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor, the need for an inland route to Alaska appeared vital. Manpower was scarce, and segregated troops were shipped north under the leadership of white commanders... despite protest from the U.S. Army commander in Alaska, Gen. Simon Bolivar Buckner, son of a Confederate general whose negative attitude toward Blacks was legendary.

The construction of the 1,522 mile long road from Dawson Creek, British Colombia, to Fairbanks, Alaska through rugged, unmapped wilderness was heralded as a near impossible engineering feat. Many likened it to the building of the Panama Canal. There was much praise for soldiers who pushed it through in just eight months and twelve days. However, Black battalions were seldom mentioned in publicity releases, despite the fact that they numbered 3,695 in troop strength of 10,670.

According to the testimony of their commanders, these men did an exceptional job under duress. Ill housed, often living in tents with insufficient clothing and monotonous food, they worked 20 hour days through a punishing winter. Temperatures hovered at 40-below-zero for weeks at a time. A new record low of -79 was established. The majority of these troops were from the South; yet, they persevered. On the highway's completion, many were decorated for their efforts and then sent off to active duty in Europe and the South Pacific. The veterans of the Army's Black Corps of Engineers were members of the 93rd, 95th, 97th and 388th units.

Due to the fine showing of these Black troops and others, the U.S. military integrated all units during the Korean Conflict, becoming the first government agency in the United States to do so.

The road, originally called the Alaskan-Canadian Highway quickly adopted the shortened name Alcan Highway. Today, this road, known as the Alaska Highway, still provides the only land route to Alaska.
(Black Archives Research Center Museum, Florida A & M University)

VALDEZ HISTORY
Goldrush of 1898

"Gold in Alaska!" "Valdez Glacier — Best Trail!" So rang the headlines in 1897-1898.

Steamship companies promoted the Valdez Glacier Trail, praising it as the only All-American trail to Alaska's interior. The Copper River, they said, was on American soil. Prospectors were bound to find even more gold there than in the Klondike.

It was one of the greatest hoaxes in Alaska's history. The prospectors arrived to find a glacier trail twice as long and steep as reported. With frontier grit, they set about hand sledding more than a 1000 pounds of supplies over the glacier, building boats, rafting the Klutina River's Hell's Gate rapids, and prospecting unnamed creeks.

By August most of the 4,000 or more goldrushers knew — they had been conned. But was it worth it? No, for those who died. Yes, for the many who found the greatest adventure of their lives. They returned home to tell others about Valdez's mountainous beauty and awe-inspiring glaciers. They told stories of their thrilling experiences rafting wild rivers, encountering bears, catching fish and hiking wilderness trails. And yes, for those who succumbed to the lure and challenge of building the first ice-free trail between coastal and interior Alaska.

Today, this is the route of the Richardson Highway and the Trans-Alaska Pipeline from Prudhoe Bay to Valdez. And yes, again, for those who were so intrigued by this majestic wonderland they stayed to build the town of Valdez and Alaska.

—Nancy Lethcoe

Nancy and her husband, Jim, have written extensively on the cultural and natural history of Prince William Sound. For more, please visit her website: http://www.alaska.net/~awss.pws.html

1964 THE 5 MIN 9.2 MEASURED EARTHQUAKE (GOOD FRIDAY QUAKE)

On Good Friday, March 27, 1964, the largest earthquake ever to hit North America struck Alaska. It was the second largest earthquake ever recorded, second only to Chile in 1960, which experienced a quake of 9.5 Moment Magnitude (Mw). The epicenter of this awesome quake was a mere 45 miles west of Valdez and 14 miles under the earth's crust. Initial shocks lasting over five minutes affected nearly all of the coastal communities of Alaska.

The magnitude of this quake measured 8.4 - 8.6 on the Richter Scale and was reported as a 9.2 Moment Magnitude (Mw). The massive shock waves ripped streets apart, damaged homes and destroyed buildings in town. Two docks in town were completely destroyed. $15 million dollars in damage was reported.
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The earthquake triggered a huge submarine slide that caused millions of cubic yards of earth to slide into the Valdez Bay. Large seiche waves caused additional damage. Thirty-one Valdezeans (mostly children) lost their lives during the earthquake.
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Due to the unstable condition of the town, many residents were forced to live in roadhouses for a period of a couple of weeks. Help from Fairbanks arrived almost immediately. This aid came in the form of food, clothing, and entertainment. Gradually people whose homes had not been damaged were allowed to return to their property.

The ground under Valdez was determined to be unstable and it was decided to move the location of Valdez to a new town site. The Army Corps of Engineers chose the delta of Mineral Creek after much research. The ground was more stable — the base being dense, medium-sized cobblestone gravel for some 100 feet down. It took from two to four years for the new Valdez to become home for Valdez residents. Approximately 62 buildings were moved from the old Valdez to the new town site. Homeowners paid a fee of $400 for lots because the Corps of Engineers, along with Urban Renewal funds, replaced public facilities.

Since that tragic day in 1964, Valdez has grown and flourished. For its efforts in rebuilding the new Valdez in an amazingly short time, Valdez was voted an All America City in 1965. Valdez was once again named an All America City in 1982 for its diversified economic growth, which has stabilized today encompassing the oil industry, fishing, and tourism.

Some say the same earthquake devastation can never happen in Valdez again because of its new location. But every tremor brings the question of its possibility to the residents of Valdez.

1970'S-CONSTRUCTION OF THE TRANS-ALASKA OIL PIPELINE & MARINE TERMINAL

A BRIEF HISTORY OF ALASKA OIL EXPLORATION & PIPELINE DEVELOPMENT

The presence of crude oil on Alaska's North Slope was suspected for more than a century. In 1968, Atlantic Richfield Company and Humble Oil (now Exxon) confirmed the presence of a vast oil field at Prudhoe Bay. Within a year, plans were under way for a pipeline.

In 1970 environmental groups and others filed suits to prevent pipeline construction. Three and a half years of legal proceedings followed, during which the proposal to build the pipeline was considered by the federal and state governments, including the US Congress. No construction was permitted during this time.

Presidential approval of pipeline legislation provided the go-ahead to begin construction on November 16, 1973. The 360-mile distance from the Yukon River to Prudhoe Bay required a road to be built for transportation of equipment and materials. It was constructed in 1974. At the same time work was begun on pump stations, the pipeline work pad, and the Valdez Terminal.

The first pipe was laid in the Tonsina River, north of Valdez, on March 27, 1975. By the end of 1976, an additional 428 miles of pipeline were in place; miles which included Thompson Pass, a 2,678-foot high obstacle about 25 miles from Valdez

Pipeline employment reached its peak at 21,600 in August of 1975. By May of 1977, all 800 miles had been installed and tested. Oil entered the pipeline at Pump Station One, at Prudhoe Bay, on June 20, 1977, and reached Valdez on July 28. On August 1, 1977, the tanker "ARCO Juneau" sailed out of Valdez with the first load of North Slope crude oil. The historic billionth barrel reached Valdez on January 16, 1980. And, in November of 1997, the 12 billionth barrel of oil reached Valdez.
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DETAILS: THE PIPELINE ITSELF

The 48-inch diameter pipeline crosses three mountain ranges as well as forests, rivers, and plains. More than half the line is elevated in sections ranging from about 30 miles in length to the a few hundred feet. The remainder is buried underground.

The decision to elevate or bury the pipe depended primarily on soil conditions and the possible effects of the pipeline heat on the soil. Normal burial was used in stable soils and rocks, where thawing would not cause loss of soil support for the pipeline. Additionally, special burial techniques were used in some short sections for animal and highway crossings.

In places where melting permafrost might create soil stability conditions, the pipeline was insulated, jacketed, and installed above ground. Thawing around the aboveground supports in the most heat-sensitive areas was and is prevented by thermal devices that carry heat up through the pipes to radiators on top of the supports.

Aboveground sections were built in a flexible zigzag pattern in which longitudinal expansion or contraction of the pipe from heat or cld is converted into sideways movement. This also accommodates pipe motion induced by earthquake.

At more than 800 river and stream crossings, the pipe bridges the waterway or is buried beneath it. And, at 151 points along the line, valves are installed to sop oil flow, if necessary. In particular, valves are located near key stream crossings, population areas, and major uphill sections of the pipeline.

Throughout much of the life of the pipeline, crude oil was moved down the line by a series of ten operating pump stations. An additional facility provided oil control capability and could have become a pump station if expansion by the system had been required. A twelfth station site was also available. Today only six of the original ten pump stations are being used to move oil through the line.(Production of oil on the North Slope has been declining because of the age of the oil fields, thereby reducing the amount of throughput of oil in the line, and thus requiring fewer pump stations.)

The heart of each station is the main pump building that houses gas-turbine-driven mainline pumps. Most stations have three pumps, each of which can move 22,000 gallons of oil each minute, or up to 754,000 barrels a day (one barrel equals 42 gallons).
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THE VALDEZ TERMINAL
Oil from the pipeline is first stored, then loaded aboard tankers at the terminal in Valdez. Located across the bay from the city, this 1,000-acre site is built on the northernmost ice-free port in the United States, and offers a deep-water channel with a minimum width at the entrance of about 3,000 feet.

There are 18 crude oil storage tanks at the Terminal—4 in the West Tank Farm, and 14 in the East Tank Farm. The tanks are 250 feet in diameter, 62 feet and 3 inches high, and can hold 510,000 barrels each, for a total capacity of 9.18 million barrels. For safety, each tank is surrounded by a concrete dike, which can hold 110% of the oil in the tanks.

The nerve center of the 800-mile-long pipeline system is the Operations Control Center at the Valdez Terminal. The controllers at the center can start or stop the entire pipeline, or initiate or terminate functions at any part of the line. Other shore facilities include a vapor recovery system, a ballast water treatment plant, power plant, warehouses, and shop buildings, meters, and meter-proving equipment, water treatment and sewage systems, oil spill contingency equipment, and fire-fighting systems.

Tankers arrive almost daily at Valdez to carry crude oil from the pipeline terminal to refineries. Tanker berths at the terminal are numbered 1, 3, 4, and 5 (berth 2 could be built if needed). Berth 1 is a floating berth, and can handle tankers of 16,000 to 12,000 deadweight tons. Berth 3 is fixed, and accommodates tankers up to 250,000 deadweight tons. Berths 4 and 5 are also fixed and can each handle tankers up to 265,000 deadweight tons, or larger. Oil is gravity-fed to the ships through four hydraulically controlled metal arms. Berth 1 can load 80,000 barrels per hour. Berths 3, 4, and 5 can each load up to 110,000 barrels per hour.

The berth loading arms are also used to transfer the ship's ballast water — used to stabilize a ship at sea hen it is not carrying oil — to the ballast water treatment plant for processing. The water is treated to remove oil, then discharged 700 feet offshore into Port Valdez, at depths of 200 feet or more.

Exxon Valdez was the original name (later Sea River Mediterranean and eventually Mediterranean) of an oil tanker owned by the former Exxon Corporation. It gained widespread infamy after the March 24, 1989 oil spill in which the tanker, captained by Joseph Hazelwood, hit Prince William Sound's Bligh Reef and spilled an estimated 11 million gallons of crude oil. This has been recorded as one of the largest spills in U.S. history and one of the largest ecological disasters.

The vessel had an all steel construction, built by National Steel and Shipbuilding Company in San Diego. A relatively new tanker at the time of the spill, it was delivered to Exxon in December 1986. The tanker was 300 m long, 50 m wide, and 27 m in depth (987 ft by 166 ft by 88 ft), weighing 30,000 tons empty and powered by a 31,650 shp (23.60 MW) diesel engine. The ship could transport a maximum of 1.48 million barrels (200,000 t) at a sustained speed of 16.25 knots (30 km/h) and was employed to transport crude oil from the Alyeska consortium's pipeline terminal in Valdez, Alaska, to the lower 48 states of the United States. The vessel was carrying about 1.26 million barrels, or about 53 million gallons, when it struck the reef.

After the spill, the Exxon Valdez was towed to San Diego, arriving on July 10 and repairs began onboard on June 30, 1989. Approximately 1,600 tons of steel were removed and replaced in the month of July 1989, totaling $30 million of repairs to the tanker.

After being repaired, the Valdez was renamed the "Sea River Mediterranean," later shortened to "S/R Mediterranean," then to simply "Mediterranean" and sailed under the Marshall Island flag. Although Exxon tried to return the ship to its Alaskan fleet, it was prohibited by law from entering Prince William Sound.