Cordova, Alaska Cordova, Alaska Cordova () is a small town located near the mouth of the Copper River in the Valdez-Cordova Census Area, Alaska, United States, at the head of Orca Inlet on the east side of Prince William Sound. The population was 2,239 at the 2010 census, down from 2,454 in 2000. Cordova was named "Puerto Cordova" by Spanish explorer Salvador Fidalgo in 1790. No roads connect Cordova to other Alaskan towns, so a plane or ferry is required to travel there. In the Exxon Valdez oil spill of March 1989, an oil tanker ran aground northwest of Cordova, heavily damaging
Exxon Valdez oil spill contracted during the actual crisis. Several weeks after the spill, "Saturday Night Live" aired a pointed sketch featuring Kevin Nealon, Phil Hartman, and Victoria Jackson as cleanup workers struggling to scrub the oil off of animals and rocks on a beach in Prince William Sound. In the 1995 film "Waterworld", the "Exxon Valdez" is the flagship of the movie's villain, "The Deacon," the leader of a band of scavenging raiders. In the ship is a portrait of their patron saint, Joseph Hazelwood. In the second Forrest Gump novel, "Gump and Co." by Winston Groom, Gump commandeers the "Exxon Valdez" and