Earthquake Remnants Found

Couple finds credit card machine, with card

By Katie Groller

Story Created: Dec 28, 2011 at 8:43 PM AKDT

Story Updated: Dec 29, 2011 at 10:27 AM AKDT

Nearly fifty years after the Good Friday earthquake the Valdez Museum has a new reminder of the historic day.

While digging through the mud at the original town site, two visitors uncovered a credit card machine with a card still in it.

The card belonged to Ralph Malachee, a Valdez resident, whose wife Mary Jo was using the card at a gas station hours before it was destroyed.

Valdez Museum Curator Andrew Goldstein says the discovery is a perfect example of the panic that day, “The sense of emergency that people felt as the earthquake was happening, it really speaks to me of the sense that people had just to drop everything and get themselves to safety.”

The discovery of the credit card machine and the fate of Mary Jo Malachee, who did make it out of Valdez safely, are being featured on the Travel Channel’s "Mysteries of Museums" series.

 

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