Old Valdez was the original townsite of Valdez, situated on the outwash plain formed by Valdez Glacier, about 43 miles (69 km) north-northwest of Cordova and 3.7 miles (6 km) southeast of present-day Valdez, Alaska. This glacier is drained by Valdez Glacier Stream, which flows generally south-southeast for 4.5 miles (7 km) to Port Valdez in Prince William Sound. Valdez Glacier begins on the southern flank of Mount Cashman and extends southeast for approximately 20 miles (35 km) to its terminus at Valdez Glacier Lake. It is a remnant of a much larger late Pleistocene piedmont glacier that once covered the Chugach Mountains and likely extended to Montague and Hinchinbrook Islands, and possibly farther over the continental shelf. Prince William Sound remained glaciated longer than other areas due to heavy snowfall, with deglaciation beginning before 10,000 years ago. The area was not completely ice-free at lower elevations until about 9,000 years ago. In 1898, Captain William R. Abercrombie of the US Army named the glacier after Port Valdez, a fjord about 13 miles (21 km) long between the Lowe River to the east and Valdez Arm to the west. In 1790, Don Salvador Fidalgo named the fjord after the renowned Spanish naval officer Antonio Valdés y Fernández Bazán, who never visited Alaska. Valdez Glacier Stream is a braided river flowing through a broad outwash plain formed by sediments eroded from the Chugach Mountains. These mountains border the north coast of Prince William Sound and are part of the Southern Margin composite terrane, a geological formation that developed as a subduction-related accretionary complex during the Paleogene and Cretaceous periods. The terrane’s rocks include the Orca Group, Valdez Group, and McHugh Complex. The mountains north of Port Valdez feature rocks from the Valdez Group, a widespread unit primarily composed of deformed metasedimentary graywacke sandstone, siltstone, and shale. These are generally considered deposits of turbidity currents in a deep oceanic trench.

The earliest known occupation of the sound, based on archaeological records, dates back 4,400 to 3,300 years ago, as revealed by excavations at a village called Uqciuvit in the northwestern sound at Port Wells. Little is known about these prehistoric people, except that they hunted sea mammals, used red ochre, and were familiar with slate grinding. Portions of the sound seem to have been abandoned during the Neoglacial interval when advancing glaciers further limited habitable terrain. At Uqciuvit, there is a gap in the occupational sequence from 3,200 to 2,500 years ago, coinciding with the first Neoglacial advance. Another prehistoric village, Palugvik, in the southeastern sound, was first occupied about 2,400 years ago when glaciers receded. Uqciuvit was reoccupied about 2,350 to 2,250 years ago by the Palugvik people. The early Chugach Sugpiat are likely the direct descendants of the Palugvik. They were the farthest southeast extension of Yup’ik Eskimos, bordered by Athapaskans such as the Dena’ina, Eyak, and Ahtna to the east, and the Tlingit to the south. In 1741, Danish explorer Vitus Bering‘s expedition landed on Kayak Island, beginning the Russian colonization of Alaska. Russian fur trading companies initially represented the economic interests of the Russian government in Alaska, eventually solidifying in the chartered monopoly of the Shelikhov-Golikhov Company. This was later taken over by the government with the Russian-American Company. In 1793, the Lebedev-Lastochkin Company attempted, but failed, to coerce the Chugach people into hunting for them from Fort Constantine in Prince William Sound. The Shelikhov-Golikov Company subsequently took over Fort Constantine, achieving greater trading success. The Chugach village of Nuchek quickly developed near the post. Several explorers in the 18th century noted the low population of Prince William Sound relative to its size and resource abundance, estimating about 300 to 600 people. Population decline in the 19th century was partly due to diseases such as smallpox, measles, typhus, and influenza. As the population decreased, Chugach settlements in the sound dwindled to Tatitlek, Chenega, Nuchek, and Kiniklik. There were no known settlements in Port Valdez until the Klondike Gold Rush of 1898.

Prospectors discovered gold-bearing streams in Port Valdez as early as 1898, and some were placer mined. However, during the Klondike Gold Rush, the thousands who crossed the Valdez Glacier ignored these opportunities. Many gold-seekers likely passed within sight of the quartz vein on the north shore of the inlet, which was developed 12 years later into the profitable Cliff mine. In 1898, steamship companies promoted the Valdez Glacier Trail as a superior route compared to the Chilkoot Trail from Skagway for miners heading to the Klondike gold fields. This trail crossed Valdez Summit, a mountain pass and the highest point on the route, attracting about 3,000 prospectors. Those who believed this promotion were misled; the glacier trail was twice as long and very steep. Many men died attempting the crossing, partly due to scurvy contracted during the long, cold winter without adequate supplies. A town developed on the Valdez Glacier Stream floodplain to support the miners, but it did not thrive until the Richardson Highway‘s construction in 1899 connected Valdez and Fairbanks. With a new road and an ice-free port, Valdez became the starting point of the first overland supply route into Alaska’s interior. In 1907, Valdez attempted to become the terminus for a railroad from tidewater to the Kennecott Copper Mine, located at McCarthy in the heart of the Wrangell-Saint Elias Mountains. This area contained one of the richest copper ore deposits on the continent. However, a right-of-way dispute resulted in one man being killed and several others injured, leaving a half-completed tunnel in Keystone Canyon. Eventually, a rail line to Kennecott was established from the coastal community of Cordova. In 1964, the town was severely damaged during the five-minute shaking of the Alaska earthquake. Soil liquefaction of the glacial silt foundation led to a massive underwater landslide, causing a section of the shoreline to break off and sink into the sea. This displacement triggered a local tsunami 30 feet (9.1 m) high that traveled westward. The SS Chena, operated by the Alaska Steamship Company, was offloading supplies at the town wharf when the earthquake struck. The dock collapsed into the ocean, killing 32 people present to help or watch the unloading. The original townsite was subsequently abandoned, and a new site was established on more stable ground about 4 miles (6 km) to the west. The original townsite was dismantled, abandoned, and eventually burned down. Read more here and here. Explore more of Old Valdez townsite and Valdez Glacier Stream here: