Valdez is located on Prince William Sound and the north shore of Port Valdez. It is in a maritime climate zone. The winters are cold, but not as cold as in Prudhoe Bay. They chose Valdez to be at the end of the pipeline because the water does not freeze in the winter.

Valdez began as a camp for gold miners in 1897. When people came to Valdez they used Valdez as a starting place to travel to the areas that were gold mining. Valdez was named after Antonio Valdez y Basan.

The Alaskan Good Friday Earthquake of 1964 is the strongest earthquake on record in the northern hemisphere. It made a mess of half of the town of Valdez. When it was time to rebuild the city after the earthquake it was decided to relocate 4 miles to the west. The ground there was more stable.

There are a lot of things to do in Valdez such as fishing, mining, hiking, skiing, camping, and kayaking. In Valdez some people can catch halibut that weigh up to 300 pounds. A lot of salmon is caught every year. If you put all the fish that the fishermen can get all together, it would add up to more than a thousand fish.

In Valdez there are huge holding tanks that can hold up to 9.18 million barrels of oil. Every month about 75 tankers come into Valdez. It takes 18 hours to load each tanker. Each tanker holds anywhere from 175,000 to 1,050,000 barrels of oil.

Class Photo There is a statue in Valdez to honor the people who helped to make the pipeline. There is a plaque nearby that says: "We didn't know it couldn't be done."	Class Photo
Class Photo	Class Photo The end of the pipeline is milepost 800. Here is a picture of the milepost, and the dock in Valdez.
Class Photo These are tanks that hold oil.	Photo from The Great Alaska Pipeline Here is a tanker loading oil.