The Real Pole
The small hut you see behind the man pulling the Nansen sled was used for solar and celestial observations which were made in an effort to locate the exact location of the geographic South Pole. Of course at that time the icecap movement had not yet been determined, this would have to await more accurate measurements from satellite tracking data. The hut was also used to house the time capsule which was placed there for posterity on New Years Day 1957. The time capsule was supposed to be recovered in 2000. By 1964 the hut had drifted in and became buried and lost. At some point NSF may use the aerial photos of the site, GPS, and ground penetrating radar to locate the hut and the time capsule. Photo from The Crossing of Antarctica, by Sir Vivian Fuchs and Sir Edmund Hillary; ©1958 by The Trans-Antarctic Expedition; Little, Brown and Company (Boston/Toronto). The Real Polies Paul Siple (left) and Navy OIC Jack Tuck stand in front of the barrels which marked the geographic Pole...this photo was taken in the spring while they were still on station, and the movable observation hut was apparently somewhere else. This was the end of the second consecutive winter for both of these men (they had wintered at McMurdo in 1956). (Photo from the DF-II Task Force 43 cruisebook.) |