Fort Liscum

Fort Liscum was a United States Army post in the Alaska Territory on the south shore of Valdez Bay, across from the modern site of Valdez, Alaska. It operated from 1900 to 1922.

In 1899, Captain William R. Abercrombie designated a site for a military reservation at Port Valdez. Port Valdez was the trail head for the Valdez-Eagle Trail to Fort Egbert, near Eagle, Alaska. Abercrombie selected 650 acres on the south side of the bay near a point known as Ludington's Landing. The site was chosen for its deep anchorage, a nearby mountain stream providing a continuous supply of fresh water, and a location, in Abercrombie's words, "just far enough from the head of Port Valdez to be beyond the influences of the whisky element to be found in frontier towns." The head of Port Valdez was the original site of Valdez, Alaska, which, as the start of the "All-American Route" to the Klondike, attracted a steady stream of prospectors.

In May 1900, 100 soldiers arrived to establish the post and begin construction. The completed installation numbered 37 buildings, including two-story quarters for officers and civilians, a hospital, a stable, and a bakery. A U.S. War Department report described the facility as "well constructed" and easily supplied, but lamented the "unfortunate" location, where northern exposure and shadows cast by the overlooking mountains ensured that winter snow would not melt until June. On September 6, 1900, the post was named Fort Liscum in honor of Colonel Emerson H. Liscum, who had died July 13, 1900 in Tianjin, China leading the U.S. Army's 9th Infantry Regiment as part of the Eight-Nation Alliance to put down the Boxer Rebellion. The 9th Infantry Regiment was later stationed at the fort.

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