Valdez (/vælˈdiːz/ val-DEEZ; Alutiiq: Suacit) is a city in the Chugach Census Area[a] in the U.S. state of Alaska.

A former Gold Rush town, it is located at the head of Port Valdez on the eastern side of Prince William Sound.

It suffered catastrophic damage during the 1964 Alaska earthquake, and is located near the site of the disastrous 1989 Exxon Valdez oil tanker spill.

[5] In 1790, within the framework of the expeditions of Spain in the Pacific Northwest, under the direction of Juan Vicente de Güemes, 2nd Count of Revillagigedo, then viceroy of New Spain, Salvador Fidalgo was sent to San Lorenzo de Nootka where they founded the Fort of Saint Michael (Nutka).

On June 3 they disembarked on the coast of present-day Orca Inlet, and, in a solemn ceremony, Fidalgo erected a large wooden cross and reaffirmed Spanish sovereignty over the territory, naming it "Puerto Córdova."

Fidalgo continued along the Alaskan coast, until he reached Point Gravina on June 10, where he celebrated another act of reaffirmation of Spanish sovereignty.

On June 15, they discovered a port, which they named Puerto Valdés,[6] in honor of Antonio Valdés y Fernández Bazán, then "Secretary of State of the Universal Office of the Navy and the Indies" (a position equivalent to Minister for the affairs of the Spanish Navy and the four Spanish Viceroyalties of the Americas, including the Captaincy General of the Philippines).

Spain later relinquished any remaining claim to territory north of the 42nd parallel to the United States as part of the Adams–Onís Treaty of 1819.

Some steamship companies promoted the Valdez Glacier Trail as a better route for miners to reach the Klondike gold fields and discover new ones in the Copper River country of interior Alaska than that from Skagway.

With a new road and its ice-free port, Valdez became permanently established as the first overland supply route into the interior of Alaska.

The underwater soil displacement caused a local tsunami 30 feet (9.1 m) high that traveled westward, away from the city and down Valdez Bay.

32 men, women, and children were on the city's main freight dock to help with and watch the unloading of the SS Chena, a supply ship that came to Valdez regularly.

Residents continued to live there for an additional three years while a new site was being prepared on more stable ground four miles (6 km) away.

[7] In the early 1900s, city leaders George Cheever Hazelet and Andrew Jackson Meals dreamed of moving the original site of Valdez to higher, more stable ground.

The first tanker to be loaded with pipeline oil was the ARCO Juneau in early August 1977, bound for the Cherry Point Refinery in Washington.

On January 24, 2014, a major avalanche occurred just outside Valdez at Mile 16 near Keystone Canyon, prompting the closure of the only highway in or out of town.

Due to weather conditions at the time, the avalanche dammed the Lowe River, creating a half-mile-long lake that stalled snow removal efforts for nearly a week.

[15] The only road access is via the Richardson Highway, which traverses Thompson Pass and Keystone Canyon to end at Valdez.

According to the Weather Channel and NOAA, Valdez is the snowiest city in the United States, with an average of over 300 in (760 cm) per year.

Sightseeing of the marine life and glaciers, together with both deep-sea fishing, and heli skiing support a tourist industry in Valdez.

Valdez is also home to the Last Frontier Theatre Conference, hosted by the Prince William Sound College.