Vintage Trans-Alaskan Pipeline State Sculpture

The owner of this artifact of the Trans Alaska Pipeline writes: “This map of Alaska and the Trans Alaska Pipeline Project was brought home by a 798 welder who returned home from duty in 1976. It was cut out of the 48" pipe used to construct the pipeline.”

The owner’s father was one of an estimated 70,000 people who were involved in the 800-mile (1,287 km) long, 48-inch (1.22 m) diameter pipeline built to convey oil from Alaska's North Slope to south central Alaska and the port at Valdez.  His union, Pipeliners Local 798 out of Tulsa, OK specialized in providing welders for large-scale pipeline projects.  The Trans-Alaska Pipeline was probably the local’s largest project up to that point.  Their expert welding services were crucial to the integrity of the already controversial, above-ground pipeline. 

Alaska’s remote North Slope provides an especially hostile and hazardous environment for such work. Construction began in 1973 with the building of camps to house workers, roads and bridges where none existed, and carefully laid-out pipeline right of way to avoid difficult river crossings and animal habitats. Construction of the pipeline system itself started in 1975 and continued until the first barrel of oil was produced in the summer of 1977.

This sculpture, dated to that period, is an impressive piece of folk-art in form of a map cut and etched from an actual section of the forty-eight-inch carbon steel pipe showing the route of the pipeline across Alaska.  The map shows the locations of the eleven pump stations as well as numerous boom towns along the way.  Prudhoe Bay, Crazy Horse, Happy Valley, Prospect, Five Mile, Fairbanks, Old Man; and so on to the Valdez Marine Terminal on Prince William Sound in south central Alaska, where the oil is transferred to tankers. This true folk artist took time to include many details of his wilderness experience such as animal life, rivers, mountain ranges and even where the arctic circle is lined up.   

The sculpture is a large piece measuring approximately 14” x 9 ½”.  And of course, made from an actual section of pipe, it has considerable weight, about 15 pounds (packaged).  Note that the sculpture - now nearly fifty years old - has some flaws.  The seal coating on the piece is blistering in some spots, with scratches here and there.  (Because of the glare it was hard to get a clear picture of the sculpture.) The dramatic jagged outline was produced by plugging a couple of the oxygen holes surrounding the acetylene gas cutting tip.  (Because the jags are sharp, I suggest picking it up with gloves on.)

This is truly a magnificent shelf piece made from the actual pipe, brought home by a ‘798 er’ after a couple of years of demanding labor in the distant Alaskan oil fields, to provide a memento to last a lifetime.