City of Valdez Celebrates 125th Birthday with Time Capsule and Party

Note: This article was updated from its originally published version to reflect that Katie Carr was the organizer of the birthday event.

The City of Valdez turned 125 on Thursday, June 11, and the partying and celebrating lasted three days.

On June 11, up to 700-800 visitors and Valdez residents met at the Kelsey Dock plaza for a party that included a bagpipe performance, addresses by Mayor Dennis Fleming and State Senator George Rauscher, and a piñata filled with 40 pounds of swag. At least 700 people were estimated to take part in the 2026 town photo, which was buried along with other items of everyday and historical significance on Friday, June 12 in front of the Valdez City Hall.

The time capsule is scheduled to be opened in 75 years on June 11, 2101, which will be the 200th anniversary of Valdez’s official incorporation as an Alaskan city. Over a hundred items were included in the time capsule, including trinkets, souvenir coins, and stickers from businesses (who knows which ones will still be in operation in 75 years?).

The time capsule also included items that may be of interest to the scientists and historians of the future, like the 2026 city budget, a recent water quality report, a vial of Valdez water, and packets of wildflowers and forget-me-nots. (It also included McDonald’s ketchup packets and a wrapped Twinkie.) Other memorabilia include snapshots of what day-to-day life in our era looked like, like a high school pom pom, phone book, and salmon recipe cookbook.

It will be interesting to learn if the technology of 2101 will allow Valdez residents to use the Samsung Galaxy S21 or the Apple iPod Nano buried on the lawn of city hall, or if there will be any DVD players around to allow people to watch Between the Glacier and the Sea, which was included by the Valdez Museum and Historical Archive.

Some of the items included in the time capsule date back to earlier days, like a Gold Rush garter and a prom photo from 1996, and others were more personal, like a letter Valdez Elections and Records Manager Katie Carr wrote to her children.

Carr is a fifth-generation Valdez resident and organized the birthday event and time capsule burial. Her five children range in age from six to 15. It is a beautiful image to think of her kids in 75 years reading this letter their mother wrote, and it’s fun to think about what the future for the upcoming generations of Alaskans will look like.

Hopefully, it will be a future brighter and happier than any of us could imagine today. For anybody who expects to be alive in 75 years, mark your calendar for June 11, 2101 when the time capsule is scheduled to be unearthed. And if this newspaper clipping survives until then, happy 200th birthday, Valdez!