Glacier Creek rises on an unnamed glacier on the south flank of Goat Mountain in the Chugach Mountains and flows 10 miles (16 km) southwest to Turnagain Arm near Girdwood, about 31 miles (50 km) southeast of Anchorage and 20 miles (32 km) northwest of Whittier, Alaska. Walter C. Mendenhall of the U.S. Geological Survey reported the local name in 1898. Its major tributaries include Crow Creek from the north, Winner Creek from the south, and California Creek, which joins about 2 miles (3.2 km) from the mouth.

The community of Girdwood was originally called Glacier City, founded as a supply camp for placer gold miners working claims along the creeks feeding Turnagain Arm. It was renamed for Colonel James Girdwood, a Belfast-born, Scots-Irish entrepreneur and linen merchant who staked the first four gold claims along Crow Creek in 1896. Railroad construction from Seward to Anchorage, begun in 1915, spurred further growth, and by 1917 Girdwood had about 60 permanent residents. The mines closed in the late 1930s, and the town became a ghost settlement until 1949, when construction began on the Seward Highway.

In 1954 local investors formed the Alyeska Ski Corporation; a chairlift and small day lodge opened in 1959. The Good Friday earthquake of 1964 caused the Girdwood townsite to subside below Turnagain Arm’s high-tide line, and the town was subsequently relocated 2.5 miles (4 km) up Glacier Creek to its present site. Girdwood became part of the Municipality of Anchorage in 1975. Its economy long depended on seasonally occupied vacation homes and skiing at the resort, but since the Alyeska Prince Hotel was built in the 1990s, the valley has shifted toward a year-round resort economy. Read more here and here. Explore more of Glacier Creek and Girdwood here: