After a night of long hard and steady rain, we awoke a little dismayed as to how to spend our time today. Ultimately we decide to revisit the museum. We never did get over to the Annex on Saturday, so we start our visit at the annex location.
The Valdez Museum Annex features the
Remembering Old Valdez exhibit and has a 1:20 replica of Old Town Valdez just prior to the 1964 earthquake including over 400 buildings and 60 blocks. This was a major undertaking! Today we marvel at what a wonderful tool it is to actually see what the town looked like and to understand the town's heritage. We also see the best movie on the 1964 earthquake to date. The epicenter of the quake was just 32 miles from the location of old Valdez. The film, some taken from the
Chena, which had just docked prior to the quake, actually shows the earth below the town liquefying. I have never seen this before. It is an astounding sight to behold!
Tim Harned (not shown) has lived in Valdez most of his life, and came with his parents to visit his grandparents who lived in old Valdez and survived the quake. His memories and insight to the story is fascinating.
Time now to go back to the main building before closing time. When we park, Bob notices there are no cars parked in front of this nice mural, and runs over to take a picture.
The colorful and appropriate entrance to the main museum, created by Tim Harned and Nicole Randazzo, earned first prize in the 2011 Gold Rush Leg Lamp Award for decoration of
Gold Rush Days in the business category. Well deserved!
We have less than 15 minutes to review the museum and try to get pictures of items missed on Saturday.
I think this is the old Paxson Bar. I couldn't find this bar identified on the website even though a great picture of the bar is featured. Send me a message if you know the name and I can correct my error!
The museum features how the town came into being with the rush for gold in the Klondike, the 1964 earthquake and rebuilding of Valdez, the building of Alaska's first highway, and finally the Exxon-Valdez oil spill and cleanup.
On our way home, we were debating whether or not to drive around the bay over to the fish hatchery to check on bears. All for naught! As we were about to turn, I looked and out of the brush came this little guy, sniffing the good smells from the fish packing company and fishing boats, I imagine. I quickly rolled down the window and got this 1 decent shot as I watched in amazement as some thoughtless tourist took off running as fast as he could after the bear trying to get a picture with his cell phone. I imagine this poor little guy was probably freighted to death!
Tomorrow - only 40% rain predicted, and on Thursday SUN!
2 comments:
Well, the Valdez Museum certainly looks very interesing. The fire engine was especially neat to see. Loved the pic of the bear, too!
Great pics! The bar is from the Pinzon Bar. :)
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