Editing Valdez, Alaska (section)

=== Spanish beginnings ===
The port of Valdez was named in 1790 by the Spanish explorer [[Salvador Fidalgo]] after the Spanish naval officer [[Antonio Valdés y Fernández Bazán]].<ref>{{Cite GNIS|1408225|Port Valdez}}</ref>

In 1790, within the framework of the [[Spanish expeditions to the Pacific Northwest|expeditions of Spain in the Pacific Northwest]], under the direction of [[Juan Vicente de Güemes, 2nd Count of Revillagigedo]], then viceroy of [[New Spain]], Salvador Fidalgo was sent to San Lorenzo de [[Nootka Island|Nootka]] where they founded the Fort of Saint Michael (Nutka). On May 5, 1790, Fidalgo sailed with the San Carlos de Nutka towards Prince William Sound and Cook Inlet, off the coast of Alaska, and a few weeks later, he anchored off present-day [[Cordova, Alaska]]. The expedition found no signs of a Russian presence and traded with natives in the area. On June 3 they disembarked on the coast of present-day [[Orca Inlet]], and, in a solemn ceremony, Fidalgo erected a large wooden cross and reaffirmed Spanish sovereignty over the territory, naming it "Puerto Córdova." Fidalgo continued along the Alaskan coast, until he reached Point Gravina on June 10, where he celebrated another act of reaffirmation of Spanish sovereignty. On June 15, they discovered a port, which they named Puerto Valdés,<ref>"Reduced spherical chart containing the northernmost part of the California", by Salvador Fidalgo, 1790 (MN-2-C-10) [https://bibliotecavirtual.defensa.gob.es/BVMDefensa/es/consulta/registro.do?control=BMDB20180018633]</ref> in honor of Antonio Valdés y Fernández Bazán, then "[[:es:Secretario de Estado (Antiguo Régimen en España)|Secretary of State of the Universal Office]] of the Navy and the Indies" (a position equivalent to Minister for the affairs of the Spanish Navy and the four [[Spanish viceroyalty|Spanish Viceroyalties]] of the Americas, including the [[Captaincy General of the Philippines]]).

In the [[Nootka Convention]]s, which followed the [[Nootka Crisis|Nootka crisis]], Spain granted Great Britain access rights to the Pacific Northwest, although it did not establish the boundary with Spanish California, nor did it cede Spanish rights in the area. Spain later relinquished any remaining claim to territory north of the 42nd parallel to the United States as part of the [[Adams–Onís Treaty]] of 1819.