Visual Stories

Alaska, 1976: The heyday of the pipeline

The Associated Press Archive has made a wealth of news footage of Alaska available on YouTube. From Sarah Palin resigning to the Exxon Valdez oil spill, the news agency has documented some of Alaska's biggest moments.

This mini-documentary from August 18, 1976, chronicles some of the troubles and turmoil of building what's now the trans-Alaska pipeline. In particular, the video examines possible faulty welds along buried sections of the pipeline that led to delays, as well as the economic boom accompanying the influx of thousands of workers that led to dramatic changes in Alaska's cities.

Despite the delays, oil began pumping through the 800-mile pipeline in 1977, just two years after the first stretch of pipe was laid, and quickly became Alaska's primary economic driver.

From pipeline-workers' life in the Arctic to crime, prostitution and alleged union corruption -- Teamsters' leader Jesse Carr is briefly featured, a man whose "friends and enemies agreed that his influence in Alaska was second only to that of the governor," the Los Angeles Times wrote in 1985 -- the documentary offers a compelling look at life in Alaska during the pipeline construction's late-'70s heyday.

To submit your video to Alaska Dispatch News contact Tara Young at tara(at)alaskadispatch.com.

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