Portage
Ghost town · United States
- Abandoned
- unknown
- Founded
- —
- Population
- —
- Coordinates
- 60.837, -148.985
Why it was abandoned
🌊 Flooded
Detected automatically from the text: All that remains today are the ruins of a few buildings and a "ghost forest" of trees that died after salt water inundated their root systems.
History
Portage is a ghost town and former settlement on Turnagain Arm in Alaska, about 47 miles (76 km) southeast of Downtown Anchorage. The town was destroyed in the 1964 Alaska earthquake when the ground in the area sank about six feet (1.8 m), putting most of the town below high tide level. All that remains today are the ruins of a few buildings and a "ghost forest" of trees that died after salt water inundated their root systems. Where there was once a town there is now only a railroad and road junction linking the Seward Highway and the Alaska Railroad to Portage Glacier park and the Anton Anderson Memorial Tunnel, which leads to Whittier.