Anchorage
Alaska’s largest city
Anchorage is Alaska’s largest city and 4902 Spenard Road is our departure and return location for day tours and multi-day tours which is conveniently located across from the Ted Stevens Airport. This is a great spot for most hotel shuttles and taxis and right next to the Millennium Hotel on Lake Hood which we highly recommend for your stay here. There is much to do here but most people come here to get away from the city so we don’t spend much time here.
Interesting History
Anchorage was originally settled as a tent city near the mouth of Ship Creek in 1914, a townsite was platted the following year alongside the bluff to the south. Anchorage was mostly a company town for the Alaska Railroad for its first several decades of existence.
The 1964 Alaska earthquake outright destroyed or caused significant damage to most of the Anchorage neighborhoods adjacent to Knik Arm, including its downtown. The community rapidly rebuilt, and has since emerged as a major American city.
In the 1940s and 1950s, Anchorage began looking more like a city. Between 1940 and 1951, Anchorage’s population increased from 3,000 to 47,000. Crime and the cost of living in the city also grew. In 1949, the first traffic lights were installed on Fourth Avenue. In 1951, the Seward Highway was opened. KTVA, the city’s first television station, began broadcasting in 1953. In 1954, Alyeska Resort was established.
On January 3, 1959, Alaska joined the union as the 49th state. Soon after, Anchorage faced a severe housing shortage, which was solved partially by suburban expansion In January 1964, Anchorage became a City and Borough. Anchorage also has unsuccessfully bid for the Winter Olympic Games several times, with the most recent being in 1994.
On March 27, 1964, Anchorage was hit by the Good Friday earthquake, which caused tremendous destruction. The magnitude 9.2 earthquake was the largest ever recorded in North America, and Anchorage lay only 75 miles (121 km) from its epicenter. It killed 115 people in Alaska, and damage was estimated at over $300 million ($1.8 billion in 2007 U.S. dollars) it was the second largest earthquake in the recorded history of the world Anchorage’s recovery from the earthquake dominated life in the late 1960s. In 1968, oil was discovered in Prudhoe Bay on the Arctic Slope; a 1969 oil lease sale brought billions of dollars to the state.
In 1974, construction began on the Trans-Alaska Pipeline System. The pipeline was completed in 1977 at a cost of more than $8 billion. The oil discovery and pipeline construction fueled a boom when oil and construction companies set up headquarters in Anchorage. The Anchorage International Airport also boomed as well, and Anchorage marketed itself as the “Air Crossroads of the World,” due to its geographical location.[2]
In 1975, the city and borough consolidated, forming a unified government. Also included in this unification were Eagle River, Eklutna, Girdwood, Glen Alps, and several other communities. The unified area became officially known as the municipality of Anchorage By 1980, the population of Anchorage had increased to 184,775. The decade of the 1980s started as a time of growth, thanks to a flood of North Slope oil revenue into the state treasury. Capital projects and an aggressive beautification program, combined with far-sighted community planning, greatly increased infrastructure and quality of life. Major improvements included a new library, a civic center, a sports arena, a performing arts center, Hilltop Ski Area, and Kincaid Outdoor Center. In the late 1980s, the price of oil dropped dramatically and a recession hit Anchorage.
On July 8, 2000, the airport was renamed Ted Stevens Anchorage International Airport in honor of Alaska’s longest-serving senator. Although development is filling available space in the “Anchorage bowl”—a local moniker for the city area—significant undeveloped areas still remain, as well as large areas of dedicated parks and greenbelts. On November 30, 2018, Anchorage experienced a 7.0 magnitude quake, as well as numerous aftershocks. Some buildings and roadways were damaged, and communication and other services were partially disrupted, but no fatalities were reported. The quake, centered about five miles north of the city, was the largest to shake the area since the massive 1964 quake. A tsunami warning was issued and later withdrawn.