Dozens of fishing boats moored in the harbor at Valdez attest to the importance of commercial fishing. Salmon is the summer catch, while crews fish for halibut and shrimp during the winter months. (Jay Jones / Chicago Tribune)
A massive earthquake and oil spilll can’t keep Valdez down
Icebergs float in the water as a tour boat motors toward Columbia Glacier. (Jay Jones / Chicago Tribune)
Tom McAlister stands beside one of several signs documenting the 1964 earthquake in what’s called Old Town. Visitors can take a self-guided tour of the now-deserted town site using their cellphones. (Jay Jones / Chicago Tribune)
Sea lions bask in the afternoon sun on a navigation buoy in Prince William Sound. Animals are routinely spotted during day trips aboard Valdez tour boats. (Jay Jones / Chicago Tribune)
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With snowfall nine months of the year, there’s plenty of summer runoff in the waterfalls that dot the Richardson Highway in Thompson Pass, west of Valdez. (Jay Jones / Chicago Tribune)
Tom and Gloria McAlister stand along McKinley Street beside the overgrown land where their home stood before the 1964 earthquake. (Jay Jones / Chicago Tribune)
Like a page in time, a calendar from a Valdez bar was left unturned after the massive earthquake that struck in March 1964. (Jay Jones / Chicago Tribune)
At the Valdez Museum, a life ring from the Exxon Valdez hangs in an exhibit documenting the devastating 1989 oil spill. (Jay Jones / Chicago Tribune)
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At the “Remembering Old Valdez” attraction, an intricate model contains tiny replicas of all the homes in which people lived before the devastating Good Friday quake 52 years ago. (Jay Jones / Chicago Tribune)
