ANCHORAGE, Alaska — When Anchorage had to dispose of thousands of cars and trucks damaged in a powerful 1964 earthquake, it dumped them off a 350-foot bluff near the outskirts of town.
The car dumping didn’t end there.
Over the years, the bluff remained a convenient place to get rid of stolen or unwanted vehicles, as evidenced by the 2006 Dodge amid the heap of crumpled, rusted car frames and muffler pipes poking out at odd angles.
But now an effort is underway to pull some of the more than 2,000 vehicles from the bluff and clean up the wildlife refuge below that was established in 1971. So far, workers have removed 60 to 70 cars, 2,000 tires and about 25 tons of other debris in an all-volunteer effort that began 2 1/2 years ago.
Organizers of the cleanup have come to the realization that the post-quake dumping wasn’t such a great idea after all.
“I’m sure they were just overwhelmed by all the debris they had to take care of,” said Shawn Crouse, an employee of a construction company. “At the time, it probably seemed like a logical place to put it.”
The vehicles damaged in the quake are packed into the side of the bluff overlooking Cook Inlet, barely concealed under a wind-swept layer of snow and sand topped with wispy strands of grass.
