Valdez Museum Joins Alyeska TAPS 45 Celebration

Valdez Museum Joins Alyeska TAPS 45 Celebration

Valdez, Alaska, June 14, 2022 – The Board and Staff of the Valdez Museum offer our heartiest congratulations to Alyeska Pipeline Service Company on celebrating 45 years of Trans Alaska Pipeline System (TAPS) operations this month. Alyeska plans to make it a year-long celebration that will peak during the week of June 20th, because it was on June 20, 1977 when oil first entered the Trans Alaska Pipeline System.

Over the years Alyeska and the Valdez Museum have enjoyed a positive and productive relationship. We appreciate Alyeska’s consistent and generous support for a variety of museum exhibits and fundraising events; while we continue to recognize them as a wonderful asset that helps us to fulfill our mission to preserve, present, and interpret the heritage and culture of Valdez, the Copper River Basin and Prince William Sound, Alaska.

The Museum’s Pipeline Construction Collection contains 13,000 documents gathered once the pipeline owners made the decision to locate the marine terminal facility in Valdez—a decision that would shape the future of Valdez. As the managing firm, Alyeska Pipeline Service Company persistently recorded the project through photographs that include a unique collection of 3,000 photos covering all aspects of pipeline construction, from the installation of drilling equipment to social life at remote pipeline camps. The Museum also possesses maps and schematics of the last 20 miles of pipeline and the terminal facility, hard hats and arctic gear worn by workers, plus oil specimens.

Inside the Museum, at the Pipeline Exhibit, our visitors can satisfy their curiosity about how this epic construction project unfolded. And in front of the Museum on Egan Drive they can view a “scraper pig” which is used to clean wax from inside the pipeline itself. That is one of our many Alyeska supported exhibits. Again, congratulations to Alyeska Pipeline Service Company on successfully operating the Trans Alaska Pipeline System for the past 45 years!

For More Information Contact:

Executive Director Patricia Relay                                                

Tel. 907-835-2764, Email: prelay@valdezmuseum.org