"ALASKA BLACK GOLD" 3 oz of the 1st Oil (1977) pumped thru Trans-Alaska pipeline

Description

DESCRIPTION:  This is just one of the 300 remaining displays from an original issue of 1,000 made back in 1977 when the Valdez Pipeline first opened, to bring crude oil 800 miles, from Prudhoe Bay to be the deep water port of Valdez, Alaska. It comes with a small pamphlet explaining The Great Alaskan Pipeline Story.  It measures 5 1/2" long x 4” tall.  The remaining 300 are still in the original cellophane packaging! The oil in the tube, (made to represent a section of the Alaska Pipeline) is the ACTUAL OIL that was sent through.
The tremendous story of the Trans-Alaska Pipeline (1973-1977)) is not only amazing, it’s magnitude in time, effort and money dwarfed any other project of it’s time. The fever that erupted in bringing the new oil from the barren north slopes of Alaska to the deep sea port of Valdez created a frenzy in many many areas of commerce. One of those areas was the parade of memorabilia items of the project. This item for sale is one of those types of items.
All 300 of these items are in excellent condition. They have been carefully stored for for 44 years. They truly document a piece of American history in the oil industry. And, these remaining 300 units are all that are left from the original 1,000 inits that were produced.
DUANE DEN ADEL’S STORY: (the originator of these items)
Only 1,000 “ALASKA BLACK GOLD’ desktop souvenirs were handmade by Northwest Millwork in the Ballard area of Seattle in 1977. They were designed and carefully crafted under the direction of Frank Stipek, owner of his company. The concept of the limited edition souvenirs was the “brainchild” of Duane Den Adel after a bout of cabin fever in Fairbanks. Every “ALASKA BLACK GOLD” is unique due to the different stained maple wood bases.The difficulty of proving the very sustainable authenticity of the Alaska oil became easier when an opportunity to collect the oil in our own 55 gallon drum painted white with large ALASKA BLACK GOLD letters. Each time a producing oil well is activated a small amount is sent to the Anchorage oil lab for analysis. When all tests have been completed, the oil is disposed of except the oil in our drum. We certify that the oil is raw crude oil direct from a wellhead which supplied the trans-Alaska pipeline.There was also the difficulty in finding the correct material for the clear round tubes which hold the raw crude oil. Initially, they were made from plastic. Soon the raw crude ate through the tubes and they started leaking. Frank Stipek located the highest grade acrylic tube and acrylic glue in existence which was ultimately used in the making of the ALAKSA BLACK GOLD tubes. No leaks in 44 years!  About 700 of the ALASKA BLACK GOLD souvenirs were sold in 3 airport gift shops: SeaTac, Anchorage and Fairbanks. The remaining ALASKA BLACK GOLD souvenirs are selectively for sale.
ALASKA PIPELINE STORY COMPONENTS:
One of The World's most impressive man-made oil pipeline projects in History: 8 Billion dollars (in 1977 dollars)! Prudhoe to Valdez. 800 miles. Cruel cold dangerous work over The Alaska Tundra, where innovation and continuous engineering was required to provide solutions to the unforeseen (and most likely) different soil bearing conditions ever encountered in projects of this gigantic scale.
The following represents an overview of this endeavor to capture America’s independence from foreign oil.
Characters:     -Alaska    -Government regulation    -Oil companies    -Investors    -America’s future.
Situation:     -United States dependent on foreign oil    -Control of gasoline’s prices    -National security    -Oil supply availability for defense.
Plot: -Find more oil reserves    -Transportation of the oil to US refineries across the nation.
Conflict:      -Largest oil reserves in our history found in Prudhoe bay, located on the northern border of Alaska    -This location was 800 miles from the nearest deep water Port capable of handling the enormous oil tankers required to further the transportation of the oil to the refineries.
Solution:      -Design and build one of the worlds largest pipeline delivery systems 800 miles across Alaska’s harsh and undeveloped terrain filled with unknown challenges lying head.
8 billion dollars were required to bring the Prudhoe Bay Reserve down to the deep water port of Valdez. Where could the funding be found for the pipeline? Investors. Yes, and not surprisingly, in the form of the big Oil Companies that would be the prime beneficiaries of the new found BLACK GOLD! The pipeline was built between 1973 and 1977, after the 1973 oil crisis caused a sharp rise in oil prices in the United States. This rise made exploration of the Prudhoe Bay oil field economically feasible. Environmental, legal, and political debates followed the discovery of oil at Prudhoe Bay in 1968, and the pipeline was built only after the oil crisis provoked the passage of legislation designed to remove legal challenges to the project. In building the pipeline, engineers faced a wide range of difficulties, stemming mainly from the extreme cold and the difficult, isolated terrain. The construction of the pipeline was one of the first large-scale projects to deal with problems caused by permafrost, and special construction techniques had to be developed to cope with the frozen ground. The project attracted tens of thousands of workers to Alaska, causing a boomtown atmosphere in Valdez, Fairbanks and Anchorage.
Volume:  2.136 million bbl/d. Diameter:  48 in diameter.  Number of pumping stations:  11.
The wealth generated by Prudhoe Bay and the other fields on the North Slope since 1977 is worth more than all the fish ever caught, all the furs ever trapped, all the trees chopped down; throw in all the copper, whalebone, natural gas, tin, silver, platinum, and anything else ever extracted from Alaska too. The balance sheet of Alaskan history is simple: One Prudhoe Bay is worth more in real dollars than everything that has been dug out, cut down, caught or killed in Alaska since the beginning of time. IT WAS A TREMENDOUS ACHIEVEMENT, AND NOW, YOU HAVE YOUR OPPORTUNITY TO OWN YOUR OWN PERSONAL REMEMBRANCE OF IT.
We ship the same day as the received order during the week if payment is received by 12:00 PST.
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