The Pipeline Will Start Here | Alaska, 1973
In August 1973 the Environmental Protection Agency sent a photographer named Dennis Cowals to fly all 789 miles of the Trans-Alaska Pipeline route, from Prudhoe Bay to Valdez, before construction touched it.
Transcript
The herd
R001 CARIBOU FEED NEAR THE SAGAVANIRKTOK RIVER. THE PIPELINE WILL FOLLOW THE SAG RIVER SOUTH SOME 110 MILES
Dennis Cowals · Aug. 1973 · U.S. National Archives, DOCUMERICA (412-DA-7893). View the original.
Every landscape in this film was about to change. The federal government knew it — and sent a photographer through first.
R002 CARIBOU TROT ACROSS THE TUNDRA, NEAR PRUDHOE BAY WHERE THE PIPELINE WILL START
Dennis Cowals · Aug. 1973 · U.S. National Archives, DOCUMERICA (412-DA-7892). View the original.
Caribou near Proo-doe Bay, Alaska. August, nineteen seventy-three. The photographer's caption reads: where the pipeline will start.
R003 YOUNG BULL CARIBOU CROSSES GRAVEL ROADWAY NEAR MILE 0
Dennis Cowals · Aug. 1973 · U.S. National Archives, DOCUMERICA (412-DA-7901). View the original.
Mile zero. From this gravel roadway the Trans-Alaska Pipeline would run seven hundred eighty-nine miles south to the Pacific. Almost none of it existed yet.
R004 BRILLIANT AUTUMN COLORS ON THE SOUTH SIDE OF THE ATIGUN RIVER FIVE MILES INSIDE THE GORGE. VIEW LOOKS SOUTH
Dennis Cowals · Aug. 1973 · U.S. National Archives, DOCUMERICA (412-DA-7955). View the original.
Nothing in this film is colorized. When light and film agree, nineteen seventy-three looks like this. Other rolls have drifted red. That is the film too.
The photographer
R005 HAVING SPENT TWO HOURS CREEPING UP ON THEM, PHOTOGRAPHER DENNIS COWALS PREPARES TO TAKE PICTURES OF A FLOCK OF DALL SHEEP THEY ARE COMING DOWN TOWARD THE WEST LICK, ONE OF TWO SALT LICKS ON EITHER END OF THE ATIGUN GORGE. THIS VIEW LOOKS SOUTH INTO THE BROOKS RANGE
Dennis Cowals · Aug. 1973 · U.S. National Archives, DOCUMERICA (412-DA-7958). View the original.
The man in the frame is the photographer. Dennis Cowals, two hours into stalking Doll sheep — sent by the E P A to photograph the route before construction touched it.
R006 VIEW SOUTH FROM THE START OF THE PIPELINE ROUTE TOWARD THE BROOKS RANGE. GRAY BAND ON THE HORIZON IS A RAIN SQUALL
Dennis Cowals · Aug. 1973 · U.S. National Archives, DOCUMERICA (412-DA-7905). View the original.
The view south from mile zero, toward the Brooks Range. The gray band is a rain squall. Everything between here and the far ocean was spoken for.
The injunction
Here is why the land was still empty. Oil had been found under Prudhoe Bay in nineteen sixty-eight. The pipe had been designed and ordered. Then a federal court stopped the project — and held it stopped.
February nineteen seventy-three: the full D.C. Circuit ruled the permits illegal — the right-of-way was wider than the Mineral Leasing Act allowed. The injunction would hold, the court wrote, until Congress changes the applicable law.
Congress changed it. July seventeenth, nineteen seventy-three: Senator Mike Gravel of Alaska moved to declare the environmental review complete — no more study, no more lawsuits. It passed by one vote, forty-nine to forty-eight.
Then the vote that made it stick: on the motion locking the amendment in place, the Senate split forty-nine to forty-nine. The Vice President voted yea. The environmental review was over.
Mile 0
R007 BRAIDED CHANNELS OF THE SAGAVANIRKTOK RIVER OPPOSITE THE SOUTHWEST CORNER OF THE FRANKLIN BLUFFS. VIEW WEST. THE ROUTE WILL TAKE THE PIPELINE FROM RIGHT TO LEFT, NORTH TO SOUTH, ALONG THE BANK CONSTRUCTION COMPANIES WILL TAKE GRAVEL FROM CHANNELS SUCH AS THESE--SPECIFICALLY FROM THE GRAVEL BARS--FOR USE IN BUILDING THE ROAD AND THE PIPELINE BED. MILE 35, ALASKA PIPELINE ROUTE
Dennis Cowals · Aug. 1973 · U.S. National Archives, DOCUMERICA (412-DA-7972). View the original.
Three weeks after that vote, Cowals was over the North Slope. The pipeline's first hundred miles would follow this river, the Sagavanirktok, south toward the mountains.
R008 PATTERNED GROUND SHOWS ICE POLYGONS (LATTICE OUTLINES) AND TYPICAL SUMMER ARCTIC TUNDRA. PATTERNED GROUND, ICE POLYGONS, AND PERMAFROST ARE FOUND ALONG THE ENTIRE ROUTE OF THE LINE, ALTHOUGH THEY ARE RELATIVELY RARE SOUTH OF THE YUKON RIVER
Dennis Cowals · Aug. 1973 · U.S. National Archives, DOCUMERICA (412-DA-7907). View the original.
Patterned ground. The lattice is ice, working just under the surface. Permafrost runs nearly the whole length of the route — and hot oil and frozen ground would have to learn to live together.
The wild valley
R011 GALBRAITH LAKE, LOOKING SOUTH INTO THE ATIGUN VALLEY. THE PIPELINE WILL RUN BOTTOM TO UPPER DISTANCE, NORTH TO SOUTH, THROUGH THE FRAME, PASSING TO THE LEFT OF THE LAKE
Dennis Cowals · Aug. 1973 · U.S. National Archives, DOCUMERICA (412-DA-7918). View the original.
Galbraith Lake, looking south into the Atigun Valley — the pipeline's corridor through the Brooks Range.
R012 EARLY MORNING (5 A.M.) SUN OVER THE ATIGUN GORGE AND GALBRAITH LAKE. SUN IS BURNING THE FOG OFF THE LAKE
Dennis Cowals · Aug. 1973 · U.S. National Archives, DOCUMERICA (412-DA-7944). View the original.
Five in the morning. The sun burning fog off the lake. In August, this far north, the light barely leaves.
R014 YOUNG FEMALE FOX NEAR GALBRAITH LAKE CAMP WRESTLING WITH A TURKEY NECK--A HANDOUT FROM THE CAMP COOK. FOXES, ARCTIC WHITE, RED (AS SHOWN HERE), AND CROSS (A BLACK BROWN AND SILVER COMBINATION) ARE FOUND ALONG THE ENTIRE ROUTE FROM PRUDHOE BAY TO VALDEZ
Dennis Cowals · Aug. 1973 · U.S. National Archives, DOCUMERICA (412-DA-7946). View the original.
A young fox near the Galbraith Lake camp, wrestling a turkey neck — a handout from the camp cook. The survey camps were already here. The wild was already learning their schedule.
R015 BOLDER THAN ITS COMPANIONS, THIS MOUNTAIN SHEEP DECIDED TO INVESTIGATE PHOTOGRAPHER DENNIS COWALS. PHOTO TAKEN ON A BLUFF ABOVE THE WEST SALT LICK IN ATIGUN GORGE
Dennis Cowals · Aug. 1973 · U.S. National Archives, DOCUMERICA (412-DA-7963). View the original.
Dall sheep held these slopes. This one, the caption says, was bolder than its companions, and decided to investigate the photographer.
R017 WHITE FEMALE WOLF IN THE ATIGUN VALLEY. THIS WOLF DENS IN THE RIVERBANK OF THE ATIGUN INSIDE THE MAIN VALLEY ABOUT FIVE MILES SOUTH OF GALBRAITH CAMP. SHE ROAMS AT LEAST 20 MILES A DAY IN SEARCH OF FOOD FROM THE MAIN VALLEY DEN INTO THE GORGE AND THEN BACK TO THE VALLEY PROPER
Dennis Cowals · Aug. 1973 · U.S. National Archives, DOCUMERICA (412-DA-7951). View the original.
A white wolf. She dens in the riverbank five miles south of the camp, and covers twenty miles a day hunting.
R019 WOLF TRACKS ALONG THE SHORE OF A LAKE NEAR MILE 141. PUMP STATION 14 WILL BE BUILT ATOP THE HILL OVERLOOKING THIS LAKE. THE PEAK IN THE DISTANCE IS PEAK 5430. VIEW SOUTHEAST FROM NORTH SHORELINE
Dennis Cowals · Aug. 1973 · U.S. National Archives, DOCUMERICA (412-DA-8007). View the original.
Wolf tracks on a lakeshore near mile one forty-one. The caption notes what the hill above the lake is for: Pump Station Fourteen will be built on top of it.
R020 CARIBOU SHED THEIR ANTLERS ANNUALLY; THEY CAN BE FOUND ALMOST ANYWHERE ON THE NORTH SLOPE, OR HERE, IN THE ATIGUN VALLEY THE SITE OF PUMP STATION #4 APPEARS ON THE SKYLINE OF THE HILL IN THE BACKGROUND
Dennis Cowals · Aug. 1973 · U.S. National Archives, DOCUMERICA (412-DA-8010). View the original.
Caribou drop their antlers every year. These lie in the Atigun Valley — and on the skyline behind them, the site of Pump Station Four.
R021 A RAINBOW SEEMS ROOTED IN A ROCK WALL THAT FORMS THE NORTH SIDE OF THE ATIGUN GORGE, 5 MILES EAST OF THE POINT WHERE THE PIPELINE WILL CROSS THE ATIGUN RIVER
Dennis Cowals · Aug. 1973 · U.S. National Archives, DOCUMERICA (412-DA-7953). View the original.
A rainbow rooted in the wall of the Atigun Gorge.
R022 PEAK 5308 AT THE ENTRANCE TO THE ATIGUN GORGE. (ORIGINALLY THE PIPELINE WAS TO HAVE GONE THROUGH THIS WILD AND SCENIC GORGE BUT IT HAS SINCE BEEN RE-ROUTED DUE NORTH FROM GALBRAITH LAKE.) THESE CRAGGY LIMESTONE CLIFFS PROVIDE NESTING PLACES FOR EAGLES AND FALCONS
Dennis Cowals · Aug. 1973 · U.S. National Archives, DOCUMERICA (412-DA-7928). View the original.
The gorge was spared. The line had been drawn through it — and re-routed north that same year, past these limestone cliffs where eagles and falcons nest.
The pass
R023 IN THIS AERIAL VIEW NORTH FROM DIETRICH PASS (MILE 162), MUCH OF THE SOUTHERN HALF ON THE ATIGUN VALLEY IS VISIBLE. THE PIPELINE WILL DESCEND FROM THE PASS FROM THE LOWER LEFT CORNER OF THE FRAME ACROSS THE SNOW SLOPE TO THE RIVERBED AT LOWER RIGHT, THEN FOLLOW THE RIVER VERTICALLY UP THE FRAME TO APPROXIMATELY MILE 148
Dennis Cowals · Aug. 1973 · U.S. National Archives, DOCUMERICA (412-DA-8014). View the original.
South through the Atigun Valley toward Dietrich Pass, and the far side of the Brooks Range.
R024 THE VIEW NORTH TOWARD DIETRICH PASS. THE ROAD AND PIPELINE WILL RUN UP THE CENTER OF THE NARROW VALLEY TO THE PASS, MILE 162
Dennis Cowals · Aug. 1973 · U.S. National Archives, DOCUMERICA (412-DA-8020). View the original.
The road and the pipeline would climb the center of this narrow valley to the pass — at four thousand seven hundred ninety feet, the highest point on the route.
R026 CHANDALAR SHELF. THE PIPELINE WILL CROSS THE RIVER HERE AT THE BEND BEFORE DESCENDING THE 700-FOOT-HIGH BLUFF INTO THE HEADWATERS OF THE DIETRICH RIVER, SHOWN IN THE UPPER DISTANCE. THIS VIEW LOOKS SOUTHWEST
Dennis Cowals · Aug. 1973 · U.S. National Archives, DOCUMERICA (412-DA-8025). View the original.
A shelf of high country south of the range. The line would cross the river at the bend, then descend a seven-hundred-foot bluff.
R027 BRAIDED CHANNELS OF THE DIETRICH, A TYPICAL NORTHERN RIVER ALONG THE PIPELINE ROUTE. THE CHANNELS ARE NOT APPARENT UNTIL LATE SUMMER, SINCE IN SPRING THE RIVERS GENERALLY RUN FULL FROM MELTING SNOW. LIKE THE OTHER RIVERS, THE DIETRICH WILL SERVE AS A SOURCE OF GRAVEL FOR CONSTRUCTION; THE DARK AREAS SHOWN HERE ARE GRAVEL BARS. IN THIS SOUTHERN VIEW, THE PIPELINE WILL RUN ALONG THE LEFT (EAST) MARGIN OF THE RIVER
Dennis Cowals · Aug. 1973 · U.S. National Archives, DOCUMERICA (412-DA-8034). View the original.
The braided channels of the Dietrich River. Every dark bar in this picture is gravel, and the caption marks them the way a contractor would: a source.
R030 WISEMAN, A GOLD MINING CENTER CIRCA 1911-1940'S. ONLY A HANDFUL OF MINERS STILL OPERATE IN THE AREA. THIS VIEW LOOKS SOUTH DOWN THE MIDDLE FORK OF THE KOYUKUK RIVER. THE PIPELINE ROUTE FOLLOWS THE EAST (LEFT) SIDE OF THE RIVER
Dennis Cowals · Aug. 1973 · U.S. National Archives, DOCUMERICA (412-DA-8039). View the original.
Wiseman — a gold-mining center from nineteen eleven into the forties. By this August a handful of miners were still working. The route follows the far side of the river.
R032 ABANDONED TRAILERS AND A WRECKED PLANE ON THE ERODED REMAINS OF A WINTER ICE STRIP (NEAR MILE 295). THE VIEW IS SOUTH SOUTHWEST ACROSS THE KANUTI RIVER. THESE REMAINS DATE BACK TO THE 1970-71 ICE ROAD WHEN A ROUGH TRAIL WAS CUT NORTH FROM THE YUKON RIVER TO SAGWON. THE NEW PIPELINE ROUTE PASSES WEST OF THIS POINT
Dennis Cowals · Aug. 1973 · U.S. National Archives, DOCUMERICA (412-DA-8055). View the original.
Alaska had already tried a road to the oil. Trailers and a wrecked plane, left from the winter ice road cut north in nineteen seventy. The new route passes west of here.
The Yukon
R033 THE YUKON CROSSING. THIS VIEW LOOKS NORTH FROM THE SOUTH BANK OF THE RIVER. THE PIPELINE WILL CROSS DIAGONALLY FROM LOWER LEFT TO MIDDLE DISTANCE
Dennis Cowals · Aug. 1973 · U.S. National Archives, DOCUMERICA (412-DA-8074). View the original.
The Yukon.
R035 VIEW WEST ALONG THE YUKON TOWARD SIGHT AS ISLAND (AT NEAREST BEND IN RIVER) FROM A POINT UP RIVER FROM THE PIPELINE CROSSING. THE PIPELINE'S SUSPENSION BRIDGE WILL SPAN THE RIVER FROM THE LOWER LEFT CORNER OF THE FRAME TO THE LOWER RIGHT. PIPELINE WILL THEN PROCEED NORTH
Dennis Cowals · Aug. 1973 · U.S. National Archives, DOCUMERICA (412-DA-8077). View the original.
The crossing itself. The caption walks the span corner to corner: the pipeline's suspension bridge will cross from the lower left of the frame to the lower right.
R036 A VIEW WEST ACROSS THE ROUTE. CUT IN FOREST SHOWS THE LOCATION OF THE PIPELINE CROSSING OF THE LIVENGOOD HIGHWAY
Dennis Cowals · Aug. 1973 · U.S. National Archives, DOCUMERICA (412-DA-8082). View the original.
South of the river, the route was already legible on the ground — a cut through the forest where the line would cross the Livengood highway.
R038 DETAIL OF THE GRAVEL MOUNDS THAT MARK THE PASSAGE OF THE PLACER GOLD RUSH ERA NEAR FAIRBANKS. A FEW OF THE BEHEMOTH DREDGES STILL WORK ISOLATED INTERIOR VALLEYS
Dennis Cowals · Aug. 1973 · U.S. National Archives, DOCUMERICA (412-DA-8089). View the original.
Nearer Fairbanks, the ground already carried the marks of an older extraction. Tailing mounds, left by the gold dredges that worked these valleys into the nineteen fifties.
Fairbanks
R039 DOWNTOWN FAIRBANKS, VIEW SOUTHWEST. THE CHENA RIVER FLOWS THROUGH THE CENTER OF TOWN. THE PIPELINE WILL CROSS THE CHENA A FEW MILES UPSTREAM AT MILE 450. NEAR MILE 445
Dennis Cowals · Aug. 1973 · U.S. National Archives, DOCUMERICA (412-DA-8066). View the original.
Fairbanks. The Chena River through the middle of town, the Tanana on the horizon. The pipeline would cross the Chena a few miles upstream.
R041 THE VIEW WEST TO ISLAND HOMES SUBDIVISION NORTH OF FAIRBANKS ON THE CHENA RIVER. ANY OIL SPILLAGE AT THE PIPELINE CROSSING SIX MILES UPSTREAM FROM THIS POINT COULD DIRECTLY AFFECT THESE HOMES. NEAR MILE 445
Dennis Cowals · Aug. 1973 · U.S. National Archives, DOCUMERICA (412-DA-8063). View the original.
Island Homes subdivision, in a bend of the Chee-nah. The caption does not soften it: any oil spillage at the pipeline crossing six miles upstream could directly affect these homes.
R042 ALYESKA PIPELINE SERVICE COMPANY'S FAIRBANKS PIPEYARD, WITH MORE THAN 200 MILES OF 48-INCH PIPE. MOST LENGTHS ARE 50-TO 60-FEET NEAR 445
Dennis Cowals · Aug. 1973 · U.S. National Archives, DOCUMERICA (412-DA-8067). View the original.
And the pipe was already there. The Alyeska Pipeline Service Company's Fairbanks yard — more than two hundred miles of forty-eight-inch pipe, most lengths fifty to sixty feet, stacked and waiting.
The fault
R044 DONNELLY DOME. THIS ISOLATED PEAK STANDS AT THE ENTRANCE TO THE ALASKA RANGE. VIEW NORTHEAST. THE PIPE ROUTE RUNS NORTH TO SOUTH, FROM THE TOP TO THE BOTTOM OF THE FRAME, GENERALLY FOLLOWING THE ALIGNMENT OF THE GRAVEL ROAD
Dennis Cowals · Aug. 1973 · U.S. National Archives, DOCUMERICA (412-DA-8100). View the original.
Donnelly Dome, standing at the entrance to the Alaska Range.
R045 DENALI FAULT REGION. VIEW SOUTHWEST TO THE BLACK RAPIDS GLACIER. IN 1938 THIS GLACIER WAS CALLED THE "GALLOPING GLACIER" BECAUSE IT WAS ADVANCING MANY FEET A DAY. HAD IT NOT STOPPED, IT WOULD HAVE SEVERED THE OVERLAND ROUTE BETWEEN VALDEZ AND FAIRBANKS. ROUTE HERE RUNS PARALLEL TO THE DELTA RIVER AND EAST OF RICHARDSON HIGHWAY
Dennis Cowals · Aug. 1973 · U.S. National Archives, DOCUMERICA (412-DA-8104). View the original.
The Black Rapids Glacier. In nineteen thirty-eight, the caption records, they called it the galloping glacier — advancing many feet a day toward the only road south. It stopped on its own.
R046 DENALI FAULT. VIEW EAST TOWARD CASTNER GLACIER (AT LEFT) AND CANWELL GLACIER (EXTREME RIGHT). THE FAULT FOLLOWS THE TRENCH OF THE CANWELL GLACIER VALLEY. HERE, THE PIPELINE ROUTE RUNS DOWNHILL BUT PARALLEL TO THE RICHARDSON HIGHWAY AS IT PROCEEDS SOUTH ACROSS THE FAULT AND THROUGH THE ALASKA RANGE
Dennis Cowals · Aug. 1973 · U.S. National Archives, DOCUMERICA (412-DA-8109). View the original.
This trench is the Denali Fault. An active earthquake fault. The pipeline route runs through this frame and across it.
The salmon
R048 GULKANA RIVER. SALMON SWIM MORE THAN 200 MILES UP THE COPPER RIVER FROM PRINCE WILLIAM SOUND TO REACH THE HEADWATERS OF THE GULKANA RIVER IN ORDER TO SPAWN. THE PIPELINE CROSSES THE GULKANA FARTHER SOUTH AT MILE 643. FAST AND CLEAN, THE GULKANA IS TYPICAL OF ALASKA'S MANY SALMON-SPAWNING RIVERS AND STREAMS
Dennis Cowals · Aug. 1973 · U.S. National Archives, DOCUMERICA (412-DA-8120). View the original.
The Gulkana. Salmon swim two hundred miles up from the sea to spawn in this water. Fast and clean, the caption says. The pipeline would cross it at mile six forty-three.
R049 AFTER SPAWNING THE SALMON DIES. HERE SHE LIES IN THE GRAVEL STREAM BED OF THE GULKANA RIVER
Dennis Cowals · Aug. 1973 · U.S. National Archives, DOCUMERICA (412-DA-8122). View the original.
After spawning, the salmon dies. Here she lies in the gravel of the stream bed.
R052 PIPELINE CROSSING AT THE KLUTINA RIVER, WEST OF THE TOWN OF COPPER CENTER. THE ROAD IS RICHARDSON HIGHWAY. HERE THE KLUTINA DRAINS INTO THE COPPER RIVER WHICH IS THE SALMONS' PASSAGEWAY TO THEIR SPAWNING STREAMS
Dennis Cowals · Aug. 1973 · U.S. National Archives, DOCUMERICA (412-DA-8138). View the original.
The Klutina, west of Copper Center — draining into the Copper River, the salmon's passageway from the sea.
Tidewater
R053 GLACIATED PEAKS OF THE CHUGACH RANGE TOWER SOME 7,000 FEET ABOVE THE PIPELINE ROUTE AS IT MOVES THROUGH THE COASTAL BARRIER
Dennis Cowals · Aug. 1973 · U.S. National Archives, DOCUMERICA (412-DA-8146). View the original.
The Choo-gatch Range. The last wall between the oil and tidewater — peaks seven thousand feet above the route.
R054 VIEW SOUTH TOWARD THOMPSON PASS FROM A POINT OVER PTARMIGAN DROP. WORTHINGTON GLACIER APPEARS AT RIGHT. THOMPSON PASS CAN GET AS MUCH AS 50 FEET OF SNOW IN A WINTER, AND IS FREQUENTLY CLOSED TO HIGHWAY TRAFFIC FOR SEVERAL DAYS. THE ROUTE WILL TAKE THE PIPELINE DIRECTLY TOWARD THE PASS BETWEEN THE RICHARDSON HIGHWAY AT LEFT AND THE WORTHINGTON GLACIER AT RIGHT
Dennis Cowals · Aug. 1973 · U.S. National Archives, DOCUMERICA (412-DA-8149). View the original.
Thompson Pass. Fifty feet of snow can fall here in a winter, and the highway closes for days at a time.
R055 WORTHINGTON GLACIER. VIEW SOUTH. THE ROUTE WILL TAKE THE PIPELINE BETWEEN THE GLACIER, AT RIGHT, AND RICHARDSON HIGHWAY
Dennis Cowals · Aug. 1973 · U.S. National Archives, DOCUMERICA (412-DA-8150). View the original.
The Worthington Glacier. The line would thread between its snout and the road.
R056 WORTHINGTON GLACIER CREVASSES. AS LONG AS THE GLACIER CONTINUES TO RETREAT, IT IS NOT A DANGER TO THE PIPELINE
Dennis Cowals · Aug. 1973 · U.S. National Archives, DOCUMERICA (412-DA-8152). View the original.
The crevasses, up close. The caption's reassurance carries its own condition: as long as the glacier continues to retreat, it is not a danger to the pipeline.
R057 VIEW SOUTHWEST ACROSS THE VALDEZ PIPEYARD TO PORT VALDEZ THE ICE-FREE FIORD THAT WILL SERVE AS THE TERMINUS OF THE PIPELINE. IN THIS VIEW, THE PIPELINE ROUTE WILL RUN EAST TO WEST, LEFT TO RIGHT ALONG THE DISTANT SHORELINE TO THE TANKER TERMINAL. THE 1964 GOOD FRIDAY EARTHQUAKE LOWERED THE SHORELINE HERE, FORCING THE OLD TOWN OF VALDEZ (RUINS VISIBLE AT LOWER RIGHT) TO BE ABANDONED MILE 785
Dennis Cowals · Aug. 1973 · U.S. National Archives, DOCUMERICA (412-DA-8153). View the original.
Valdez. In the foreground, the pipe yard. At the lower right, ruins — the old town, abandoned after the nineteen sixty-four Good Friday earthquake dropped its shoreline. The new terminal would be built across the bay, on bedrock.
R058 PIPELINE TERMINAL. VIEW SOUTH TO THE SITE OF FORMER FT. LISCUM BUILT IN 1900. THE STEEPLY TERRACED PLATFORMS WILL PROVIDE BEDROCK FOUNDATIONS FOR OIL STORAGE FACILITIES. THE TANKER LOADING FACILITIES WILL LINK JACKSON POINT, THE TIP OF THE PENINSULA AT LEFT, WITH THE SMALL ISLET AT RIGHT. MILE 789
Dennis Cowals · Aug. 1973 · U.S. National Archives, DOCUMERICA (412-DA-8155). View the original.
The terminal site itself, on the ground of a nineteen-hundred Army post called Fort Liscum. Storage tanks on the terraces. Tanker berths in the water between the point and the islet.
The law
In October the embargo came, and gasoline lines came with it. On November sixteenth, nineteen seventy-three, the President signed the Trans-Alaska Pipeline Authorization Act.
Title Two, Section two-oh-three. The pipeline, quote: be constructed promptly without further administrative or judicial delay or impediment.
And the clause the Senate had split even over: the work shall be taken without further action under the National Environmental Policy Act — and the permits, quote, shall not be subject to judicial review under any law.
The return
R059 VIEW EAST ALONG GLEN HIGHWAY TOWARD MOUNT DRUM (ELEVATION 12,002 FEET) AND INTERSECTION OF ROAD AND TRANS-ALASKA PIPELINE. THE 48-INCH DIAMETER PIPELINE WILL CROSS THE ROADWAY BETWEEN THE TWO VEHICLES. THE EXACT POINT IS MARKED BY A PAIR OF WOODEN STAKES ALONG THE RIGHT SHOULDER. MILE 673, ALASKA PIPELINE ROUTE
Dennis Cowals · Aug. 1974 · U.S. National Archives, DOCUMERICA (412-DA-13201). View the original.
August nineteen seventy-four. Cowals flew the route again, with the law signed. The stakes were in — his caption points them out, on the highway shoulder between the two cars.
R060 PIPELINE CROSSING OF THE TSINA RIVER AND THE RICHARDSON HIGHWAY, LOOKING SOUTH. THE LETTERS "APSC" ON THE SURVEY STAKE IN THE CENTER FOREGROUND STAND FOR ALYESKA PIPELINE SERVICE COMPANY THE PROPER NAME OF THE CONSORTIUM FIRM THAT WAS FORMED TO BUILD THE 789-MILE PIPELINE. MILE 745-747, ALASKA PIPELINE ROUTE
Dennis Cowals · Aug. 1974 · U.S. National Archives, DOCUMERICA (412-DA-13207). View the original.
A survey stake beside the Richardson Highway. The letters A P S C stand for Alyeska Pipeline Service Company — the consortium formed to build the line.
R061 VIEW FROM GLENN HIGHWAY SOUTH ALONG CENTRELINE WHICH HAS BEEN CLEARED ACROSS MUSKEG AND MARSHY GROUND THROUGH BLACK SPRUCE FORESTS LIKE THE ONE SHOWN HERE. MILE 673, ALASKA PIPELINE ROUTE
Dennis Cowals · Aug. 1974 · U.S. National Archives, DOCUMERICA (412-DA-13202). View the original.
The centerline, already cleared through black spruce and muskeg.
R062 VIEW SOUTH ACROSS THE RICHARDSON HIGHWAY, LOWER FOREGROUND, TO THE SITE OF THE SHEEP CREEK CONSTRUCTION CAMP (SHOWN IN PRELIMINARY LAND CLEARING PHASE), THE LOWE RIVER WORTMANNS CREEK AND WORTMANNS GLACIER (CENTER DISTANCE)
Dennis Cowals · Aug. 1974 · U.S. National Archives, DOCUMERICA (412-DA-13221). View the original.
Sheep Creek camp, in what the caption calls the preliminary land-clearing phase.
R063 THE CREST OF THOMPSON PASS (ELEVATION 2,771 FEET). HERE THE RICHARDSON HIGHWAY WINDS THROUGH ROCKY BENCHES THAT SEEM TO STEER THE ROAD TOWARD THE DESERTED GLACIER, EIGHT MILES AND AN ENTIRE VALLEY AWAY TO THE SOUTH. MILE 760, NEAR THE ALASKA PIPELINE ROUTE
Dennis Cowals · Aug. 1974 · U.S. National Archives, DOCUMERICA (412-DA-13218). View the original.
The crest of Thompson Pass. From here the pipe would drop more than fifteen hundred vertical feet in less than a mile — one of the steepest sections of the line.
R064 INSIDE KEYSTONE CANYON, LOOKING SOUTH ALONG THE RICHARDSON HIGHWAY. THE CLIFFS AT THE LEFT CLIMB MORE THAN 1,000 FEET ABOVE THE RUSHING WATERS OF THE LOWE RIVER. MILE 766, NEAR THE ALASKA PIPELINE ROUTE
Dennis Cowals · Aug. 1974 · U.S. National Archives, DOCUMERICA (412-DA-13227). View the original.
Keystone Canyon, which the line would skirt along a bench above these cliffs.
The water
R066 VIEW WEST TO PORT VALDEZ, THE GLACIAL FIORD THAT WILL BE THE TRANS-ALASKA PIPELINE TERMINUS, WITH ROBE LAKE IN THE FOREGROUND THE LOWE RIVER DUMPS ITS BURDEN OF SILTY ROCK FLOUR--GROUND BY GLACIERS--INTO PORT VALDEZ, AN ARM OF THE PACIFIC OCEAN AT CENTER LEFT
Dennis Cowals · Aug. 1974 · U.S. National Archives, DOCUMERICA (412-DA-13231). View the original.
Port Valdez. The farthest-north ice-free port on the continent — the reason the pipeline ends where it ends.
R067 VIEW NORTHEAST ACROSS VALDEZ RIVER FLOODPLAIN SHOWING PIPE STORAGE YARD, CENTER FOREGROUND, WHICH HOLDS 418 MILES OF PIPE YARDS AT FAIRBANKS AND PRUDHOE BAY HOLD 238 AND 168 MILES OF PIPE RESPECTIVELY. THE COMMUNITY'S AIRPORT, PAVED IN THE SUMMER OF 1974 SITS AT THE BASE OF WEST PEAK (ELEVATION 5,255 FEET). MILE 788, NEAR THE ALASKA PIPELINE ROUTE
Dennis Cowals · Aug. 1974 · U.S. National Archives, DOCUMERICA (412-DA-13233). View the original.
By this second August the yards at Valdez held four hundred eighteen miles of pipe. Fairbanks held two hundred thirty-eight more. Prudhoe Bay, one hundred sixty-eight. The whole line, in pieces, waiting on the ground.
R068 VIEW SOUTH ACROSS PORT VALDEZ FROM NEW TOWNSITE TO PIPELINE TERMINUS AND SITE OF DEEPWATER TANKER LOADING FACILITIES. FOUR TANKER BERTHS WILL BE BUILT BETWEEN JACKSON POINT (PENINSULA ON LEFT) AND SAW ISLAND. LARGE BUILDING AT LOWER LEFT IN THE CITY IS THE HARBOR VIEW HOSPITAL. THE WINDING PATH BETWEEN HOUSING ROWS IS A BICYCLE TRAIL. THE CLEARING AT THE RIGHT IS FOR NEW HOMES FOR PIPELINE WORKERS AND MANAGEMENT PERSONNEL. MILE 789, NEAR THE ALASKA PIPELINE
Dennis Cowals · Aug. 1974 · U.S. National Archives, DOCUMERICA (412-DA-13235). View the original.
The new town, looking across to the terminal. The caption takes inventory: the hospital, a bicycle trail between the housing rows, a clearing for pipeline workers' homes.
R069 VIEW NORTH ACROSS PORT VALDEZ TO CITY OF VALDEZ. STANDARD OIL COMPANY OF CALIFORNIA TANKER "ALASKA STANDARD" IS BERTHED AT CITY DOCK TO UNLOAD ITS CARGO OF PETROLEUM PRODUCTS FOR THE CITY DOCK TO THE LEFT (WEST) OF THE SHIP IS THE STATE OF ALASKA'S FERRY TERMINAL FOR THE "BARTLETT" WHICH RUNS ACROSS PRINCE WILLIAM SOUND FROM WHITTIER TO VALDEZ AND CORDOVA. MILE 789, NEAR THE ALASKA PIPELINE ROUTE
Dennis Cowals · Aug. 1974 · U.S. National Archives, DOCUMERICA (412-DA-13236). View the original.
At the city dock, a tanker — the Alaska Standard, delivering fuel to the coastal towns.
R070 TAKEN FROM A POINT BETWEEN SAW ISLAND AND JACKSON POINT THIS VIEW LOOKS EAST. THE OPEN WATER WILL BE USED FOR CONSTRUCTION OF TANKER LOADING FACILITIES. CRUDE OIL STORAGE TANKS WILL BE BUILT ON THE HILLSIDES AT THE RIGHT. MILE 789, ALASKA PIPELINE ROUTE
Dennis Cowals · Aug. 1974 · U.S. National Archives, DOCUMERICA (412-DA-13240). View the original.
The open water between Jackson Point and Saw Island. The caption assigns it a future: this is where the tanker loading berths would stand.
R072 SALMON SPAWN IN THE STREAMS THAT DRAIN SALT MARSHES SUCH AS THIS ONE OUTSIDE VALDEZ. ANADROMOUS FISH THAT BEGIN THEIR LIVES IN CLEAR FRESHWATER MATURE DURING TWO TO FOUR YEARS AT SEA, AND THEN RETURN TO THE STREAMS IN WHICH THEY WERE BORN. THEY CONSTITUTE ONE OF ALASKA'S RICHEST RENEWABLE RESOURCES. SOCKEYE SALMON SHOWN HERE WILL DIE AFTER SPAWNING. MILE 789, NEAR THE ALASKA PIPELINE ROUTE
Dennis Cowals · Aug. 1974 · U.S. National Archives, DOCUMERICA (412-DA-13245). View the original.
Sockeye, in the stream where they were born. The fresh waters around Port Valdez were closed to fishing, to protect the spawning.
R073 A FISHING BOAT PUTS TO SEA FROM THE SMALL BOAT HARBOR AT VALDEZ. COMMERCIAL FISHERMEN, ESPECIALLY THOSE IN CORDOVA (60 MILES SOUTHEAST OF VALDEZ) OPPOSED CONSTRUCTION OF THE PIPELINE BECAUSE OF THE POTENTIAL THREAT OF TANKER TRAFFIC AND OIL SPILLS POSED TO THE RICH PRINCE WILLIAM SOUND FISHERY. MILE 789, NEAR THE ALASKA PIPELINE ROUTE
Dennis Cowals · Aug. 1974 · U.S. National Archives, DOCUMERICA (412-DA-13242). View the original.
A fishing boat puts out from the small-boat harbor. Cowals's caption records the argument being lost: Cordova's fishermen opposed the pipeline, for the threat tanker traffic and oil spills posed to the fishery.
R074 TANKER "ALASKA STANDARD" IS A SMALL, OLD VESSEL TYPICAL OF THOSE THAT CARRY PETROLEUM PRODUCTS (NOT CRUDE OIL) TO COASTAL COMMUNITIES. IT CARRIES ONLY 1,078 BARRELS OF PRODUCT IN HER TANKS COMPARED TO PIPELINE TANKERS WITH MORE THAN 940,000 BARRELS CAPACITY. THIS PICTURE LOOKS NORTHEAST TO THE MAINLAND. MOUNT DENSON (ELEVATION 5,886 FEET) IS THE PROMINENT PEAK AT THE RIGHT ABOUT 28 MILES FROM THE TERMINAL OPPOSITE VALDEZ, ALASKA
Dennis Cowals · Aug. 1974 · U.S. National Archives, DOCUMERICA (412-DA-13254). View the original.
This is what a tanker meant here in nineteen seventy-four. The Alaska Standard: two hundred fifty-five feet long, carrying one thousand seventy-eight barrels.
R075 VIEW WEST ACROSS THE WESTERN-MOST POINT OF BUSBY ISLAND SOME 27 MILES FROM THE TANKER PORT OPPOSITE VALDEZ. THE SHIP IN THE DISTANCE IS THE TANKER "ALASKA STANDARD", WHICH IS 255 FEET LONG AND CARRIES 1,078 BARRELS OF PETROLEUM PRODUCTS (NOT CRUDE OIL) TO COASTAL COMMUNITIES. PIPELINE TANKERS WILL BE AS MUCH AS 900 FEET LONG AND 140 FEET WIDE AND CARRY UP TO 940,000 BARRELS OF CRUDE OIL
Dennis Cowals · Aug. 1974 · U.S. National Archives, DOCUMERICA (412-DA-13255). View the original.
And this is what was coming. The caption does the arithmetic: pipeline tankers, nine hundred feet long, carrying up to nine hundred forty thousand barrels of crude — off Busby Island, twenty-seven miles out.
R076 VIEW WEST ACROSS VALDEZ NARROWS TO ANDERSON GLACIER AND THE CHUGACH MOUNTAINS, ABOUT 11 MILES FROM THE NEW TANKER TERMINAL BEING BUILT ACROSS FROM VALDEZ, ALASKA. THE SHIP IN THE DISTANCE IS THE "ALASKA STANDARD," A SMALL OLD VESSEL TYPICAL OF THOSE WHICH CARRY PETROLEUM PRODUCTS (NOT CRUDE OIL) TO COASTAL TOWNS
Dennis Cowals · Aug. 1974 · U.S. National Archives, DOCUMERICA (412-DA-13257). View the original.
Valdez Narrows, eleven miles out. Every loaded tanker would thread this passage.
R077 THE ALASKA FERRY "BARTLETT" HEADING WEST IN PRINCE WILLIAM SOUND. THIS SCENE IS ABOUT 30 MILES WEST OF VALDEZ, AND WELL AWAY FROM THE PLANNED TANKER ROUTES
Dennis Cowals · Aug. 1974 · U.S. National Archives, DOCUMERICA (412-DA-13252). View the original.
The state ferry, crossing Prince William Sound — in the caption's words, well away from the planned tanker routes.
R078 VIEW SOUTH ACROSS THE SNOUT OF COLUMBIA GLACIER TO PRINCE WILLIAM SOUND. THE COLUMBIA, LIKE NUMEROUS OTHER TIDEWATER GLACIERS IN PRINCE WILLIAM SOUND PRODUCE HUNDREDS OF ICEBERGS EACH YEAR, SOME OF WHICH WILL BE TAKEN OUT TO SEA BY WINDS AND CURRENTS THE PROPOSED TANKER ROUTE LIKES TO THE UPPER LEFT WITH THE PASS BETWEEN HINCHINBROOK AND MONTAGUE ISLANDS APPEARING IN THE UPPER RIGHT CENTER ON THE HORIZON. NEAR VALDEZ, ALASKA
Dennis Cowals · Aug. 1974 · U.S. National Archives, DOCUMERICA (412-DA-13259). View the original.
Cowals's last frames look across the snout of the Columbia Glacier. His caption counts the ice — hundreds of icebergs a year, carried out by wind and current — and places the proposed tanker route just beyond.
Fifteen years
Fifteen years later — nine minutes past midnight, March twenty-fourth, nineteen eighty-nine — a loaded tanker grounded on Bligh Reef, in Prince William Sound. Two hundred fifty-eight thousand barrels went into the water. She was the Exxon Valdez.
The federal report blamed people: a fatigued third mate, an impaired master, a thin crew, a traffic service not watching. But the reason she was out of her lane is on this page — she had turned to avoid ice.
Ice calved from the Columbia Glacier, drifting into the tanker lanes. And as the ship came around, the third mate took his bearing off Busby Island — the point Cowals had framed from the air, fifteen years before, in the caption that did the arithmetic.
D001 CARIBOU TROT ACROSS THE TUNDRA, NEAR PRUDHOE BAY WHERE THE PIPELINE WILL START
Dennis Cowals · Aug. 1973 · U.S. National Archives, DOCUMERICA (412-DA-7892). View the original.
Sources
- [S1] Dennis Cowals, photographs for DOCUMERICA, Environmental Protection Agency — Alaska pipeline route surveys, August 1973 and August 1974. National Archives, Record Group 412, series 412-DA (naIds 550377–550645, 555653–555712); files via Wikimedia Commons at the Archives' full resolution. Federal-use works, unrestricted (clearance: research/documerica-atlas/RIGHTS.md). The colors are real — period color transparencies, not colorizations; the 1973 rolls have shifted toward red with age and are shown as scanned. https://catalog.archives.gov/search?q=cowals%20documerica
- [S2] Wilderness Society v. Morton, 479 F.2d 842 (D.C. Cir. 1973) (en banc), decided Feb. 9, 1973. Read from the Caselaw Access Project scan of F.2d vol. 479 (static.case.law/f2d/479.pdf); West's editorial headnotes are redacted (black bars) in that scan — the court's own text is complete.
- [S3] Congressional Record, July 17, 1973 — 119 Cong. Rec. 24316 (bound vol. 119, pt. 19; 400-dpi microfilm scan, archive.org sim_congressional-record-proceedings-and-debates_july-13-19-1973_119_part-19).
- [S4] Trans-Alaska Pipeline Authorization Act, Public Law 93-153, 87 Stat. 576 (approved Nov. 16, 1973). Read from the United States Statutes at Large, vol. 87, 400-dpi scan (archive.org, filed under 1972: sim_united-states-united-states-statutes-at-large_1972_87; leaf = printed page + 31).
- [S5] National Transportation Safety Board, Marine Accident Report NTSB/MAR-90/04 — Grounding of the U.S. Tankship Exxon Valdez on Bligh Reef, Prince William Sound, March 24, 1989 (300-dpi agency scan, ntsb.gov).