First day of work

Today was my first day of work at the Valdez Museum. Andrew showed me around the collections area and the office where I'll be working in the Annex building, which is separate from the main museum where most of the exhibits are. Then, we headed to the other museum building, where Andrew walked me through all of the exhibits and explained some of the interesting history of Valdez. Then, Scott Carrlee from Alaska State Museums (who set up the internship program) met us at the museum to go over some details about the internship and everyone's responsibilities.

Afterwards, we took a little drive to the old Valdez town site. In 1964, Valdez was hit by one of the biggest earthquakes on record. The town was originally built on glacial silt, and during the earthquake a landslide occurred and pulled the waterfront docks into the water and killing over 30 people. After this disaster, a new town site was secured a few miles away and residents were forced to move within a certain period of time. The old town site was razed by fire (allowing many Alaska firefighters to gain valuable training) and now few signs remain that a town ever existed on the old town site.

Old Valdez Town Site

(Notice the sidewalks still visible)

Afterwards, Andrew was nice enough to take us out to lunch at Ernesto's, a Mexican restaurant in Valdez. Then, we headed back to the Annex. For the remainder of the afternoon, Andrew trained me on PastPerfect collections management software and went over what I'll be working on for the summer. I think it's going to be a great internship.