Valdez, Alaska The original town site was dismantled and abandoned. From 1975 to 1977, the Trans-Alaska pipeline was built to carry oil from the Prudhoe Bay oil fields in northern Alaska to a terminal in Valdez, the nearest ice-free port. Oil is loaded onto tanker ships for transport. The construction and operation of the pipeline and terminal boosted the economy of Valdez. The 1989 "Exxon Valdez" oil spill occurred as the oil tanker "Exxon Valdez" was leaving the terminal at Valdez full of oil. The spill occurred at Bligh Reef, about from Valdez. Although the oil did not reach Valdez, it devastated
Prince William Sound 1778 to honour George III's third son Prince William Henry, then aged 13 and serving as a midshipman in the Royal Navy. In 1793, Alexander Andreyevich Baranov founded port Voskresensk in the sound, which he called Chugach Bay. The first three-masted ship, "Phoenix", was the first ship built by the Russians in America. A 1964 tsunami, a result of the Good Friday earthquake, killed a number of Chugach villagers in the coastal village of Chenega and destroyed the town of Valdez. In 1989, the oil tanker "Exxon Valdez" ran aground on Bligh Reef after leaving Valdez, causing a large oil