Images of

ANTARCTICA

Old McMurdo

Photos © 2002 Seth White

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Over the course of the season I found quite a few pictures of historical interest on a McMurdo shared computer account. When you log into the network here, the "I:\" drive will be automatically mounted as a shared account to which you can post pictures, files, games, music, or whatever. I snagged various pictures from here during the course of the season, so here they are. The first of the bunch is definitely the best - pics of the Snow Cruiser. What is this, you ask? Well, it was a monstrous vehicle constructed in the late 1930's, intended to be the uber-vehicle for the Antarctic. It turns out that this was not so. However, the whole saga of the construction, transport, and fielding of this vehicle is quite the story. Here is a schematic of the behemoth.

Here is the real thing: the SNOW CRUISER!!!! I guess this was taken during its transport phase, on its way from Chicago to Boston, where it was put on a ship and sent south to the Antarctic.

Here it is during a pit stop on its much-heralded journey eastward from its point of origin. Crowds gathered regularly to witness the magnificent spectacle that was the Snow Cruiser - I have read that people from a house for the blind came out one day to just touch the thing! OK, so I'm making fun of the small town folk who lived in the midwest during the 1930's. Well, truth be told, I would have definitely come out of my house to see this one-of-a-kind thing as it went through my town on its way to the last great frontier on Earth. Hey, this is pretty cool, even though it was a tremendous flop in the actual Antarctic.....

Another larger picture of the Snow Cruiser on its journey across the Eastern US. This thing had retractable front and rear wheels, which when operated in sequence, were supposed to allow it to drag itself across crevasses. A pretty inventive idea, but it just didn't work out. The tires evidently got bogged down in the semi-soft snow right off the bat, and it was pretty ineffective.

Here is a pic of the Snow Cruiser making its way eastward in 1939. This is a pretty modern looking vehicle, actually. It reminds me of McMurdo's own unique large-type transporter, Ivan the Terrabus.

Here is an artist's conception of the beast...complete with an airplane on top. I am curious...how did the plane get down from the top of this massive thing? Did it ever fly? What's the dealio here? I read that this vehicle was actually offloaded at the Bay of Whales, due east of here on the Ross Ice Shelf (this is where Amundsen made his base camp Framheim on his polar journey of 1911). So it's not really McMurdo, but hey, close enough.

Well, it seems those guys somehow managed to get the airplane from the top of the Snow Cruiser down to the ground, as evidenced by these pics in the Antarctic. So did it fly? What did these penguins think of the whole affair? Probably not much. Penguins are very stupid and primitive; Emperor Penguins are probably the most primitive (and toughest) birds on earth. Anyhow, this Snow Cruiser business is elaborated on further at a couple websites. See here for an account of this business. Be sure to follow the link for Operation Highjump at the end of the Snow Cruiser page for a conspiracy-laden account of the largest Antarctic expedition ever launched (~4700 people!). Along the way, ask yourself one question... why on earth would the nazis be interested in establishing an underground presence in Ant-Freaking-Arctica during the late 1940's??? Gawd! It is a significant undertaking to even get here, let along build and maintain a station. Did the battered post-war nazi groups really have the resources to do this? And if so, why on earth would they come down here to build a station? Anyhow, there is a much more rational site with Snow Cruiser info here (the site is definitely worth checking out). Warning: tangent is iminent.....I am reminded of the (in)famous Art Bell radio shows of a few years back when he and a bizarre caller cooked up a massive Antarctica conspiracy, involving alien civilizations and nuclear plants at Lake Vostok, virus outbreaks, salt deliveries to the South Pole, mysterious medevacs from McMurdo, and what-have-you. In fact, I have the MP3 files from his broadcasts during this time, and perhaps I'll post them sometime. These radio shows are just amazing to me. The first time I heard them I was just stupefied. I have lived here for nearly a year, and have gotten to know a good deal about this place. I also know many people who were on station during that winter - and their stories of this whole thing are pretty humorous. In fact, I think I'll put these audio files on this site sometime in the future, with appropriate commentary, just so you can hear them. This will probably be a lot of work on my part, but it's worth it. The thing is, many people out there actually took Art Bell seriously, and still believe that his radio broadcasts actually contain a shred of journalistic integrity. Not so! Are there conspiracies out there? Probably not as many as some people think, but surely there are some. I do know for sure, however, that you will not come any closer to demonstratable truth by listening to Art Freaking Bell. OK, I'm done. Moving right along....

(When I originally posted this webpage, I thought the idea of nazis running around Antarctica after the war to be ludicrous...and I still do. But as it turns out, Hitler had an interest in Antarctica. The Germans actually undertook an expedition in 1938-39, where they did numerous photographic flights over a large part of the continent. Along the way, they dropped thousands of little flags and claimed a large region as Neuschwabenland! Evidently, they wanted to use this expedition as a starting point for building Antarctic bases in the future. For more on this, see here. While poking around the web for info on this expedition, I ran across a LOT of conspiracy pages...betcha didn't know Hitler was still alive and living in Antarctica!!)

The next 6 pictures are a sequence of an LC130 flying low through the pass, between McMurdo and Scott Base. Crater Hill and T-site are on the left, and Ob Hill is on the right. The main building which stands out is 155 (my current dorm). This is the large light colored building in the center of the picture. So, this means the photo was taken sometime after 1968, when 155 was built. Most of the other buildings are demolished, however there are several other recognizeable buildings in this picture. But I am too lazy to date them. Do note, however, the ever present cross on the top of Ob Hill which commemorates Scott's party, who died on their return from the Pole.

The LC-130 getting closer. The vertical-running road in this picture is the road to Scott Base, which lies straight over the pass at Pram Point.

Next one in the sequence of this gnarly fly-by. In the days of Scott, they called this area "The Gap". There was no road here then, and it was actually a pain in the butt to get across from Pram Point to Hut Point.

Here it comes...

The plane passing by. There are three buildings on the middle of Ob Hill. The rightmost two of these comprised the old Nuclear Power plant, and the leftmost one was the old water filtration plant. The middle building has been demolished, but the left and right ones still stand. The left one is a heated storage area for South Pole cargo (and contains some of the Mount Erebus seismic recording equipment as well as the crater camera receivers). The right building is now another warehouse. The ground to the right was excavated and shipped off-continent due to high levels of radioactive pollution. From what I have heard, there was much intrigue surrounding the decomissioning and removal of the nuc plant (nicknamed Little Nukie).

And there goes the plane - headed north. This is the direction I would like to be heading right about now....but there's still 73 more days to go. Eh, no biggie. After nearly 10 months here, I'm still glad to be here. I am missing home, my family, and my friends. However I wouldn't trade being here for the world. I want to see the whole thing through, for an entire year, and I have a lot left to do. But I'll be glad to get back to my life. Anyhow, notice White Island in the background of this pic.

The next few pics are from Admiral Richard E. Byrd's 1928 Antarctic expedition, during which he established the first (of many) Little America stations on the Ross Ice Shelf. These pictures are of the Fokker monoplane which he used to fly around the area. It was torn from its moorings and subsequently wrecked during high winds while it was landed near the Rockefeller Range. In the 1980's the wreckage was rediscovered... and here are some pictures. For more information about this expedition, see here and here. This last link is more concerned with Lawrence Gould, after whom one of the USAP's research vessels is named. Note particularly the Twin Otter landed right near the wreckage. This plane is still one of the USAP's workhorses.

How cool would it have been to discover this plane? These pictures are great.

More.

A wooden landing ski of the aircraft.

I suppose this was one of the aircraft's control mechanisms. Neat-o. I wonder if this wreckage is still there? I guess if it hadn't been drifted over in the ~50 years between when it was crashed and when it was rediscovered, it should still be there 20 years later, right? How does one score a boondoggle out to check this out? Interesting question to ask, but definitely impossible...unless you have a lot of pull with NSF.

These next few are from McMurdo, 1962. This is only 7 years after the McMurdo Naval Air Station was established. Here's a small pic of the entire place.

Another one of the big city.

The Discovery Hut, 1962. Looks about the same as now....

Vince's cross on Hut Point. George Vince was part of Scott's 1902 expedition and died when his party got lost in a blizzard on their way back from a sledging trip. They were very close to getting home, near Castle Rock in fact. But a storm set in and they couldn't get their stove going in the tent. So they decided to try to get back to the hut but strayed way off course. They ended up near the slopes on the NW side of the peninsula, near Arrival Heights. Vince slid down and was never seen again. The other two were lucky to make it back. I'm not sure, but I think it's a pretty good bet that the Danger Slopes near that area were named so because of this. And yep, the cross looks about the same now as it did then....

The water's edge, looking NW from Hut Point. Open water - another sight that hasn't been seen from McMurdo in a while. Due to the iceberg B-15, it's been years since the ice has flowed out.

Cool picture of some ice caves - presumably at the Erebus Ice Tongue. The guys were not able to re-locate the ice caves at the start of summer 2002, so no trips were made out there. Too bad. Maybe they will do another recon trip before I leave in October. If so, I hope they uncover the caves and have a few trips.

This is a view looking SW toward Ob Hill. The chapel here at the end of the road is curious - it looks to me like a Quonset hut with a church-like facade!

Here's a pic of some guy lighting up in the streets of McMurdo...in short sleeves. This guy actually looks remarkably like my friend Steve....who probably would have fit in pretty well in McMurdo, 1962.

A site you don't see anymore in Antarctica - dogs are now banned continent-wide. Many of the dogs were put to sleep, but some found new homes elsewhere. There is a photo in the Scott Base bar of a dog team from Scott Base doing some sled-pulling in Colorado after they were finished here.

Another one of this guy playing with a dog. Two things about this picture caught my eye. First, the brown building in the top left corner is a two-story Quonset hut, and is still standing. It's the main recreation building on station, with a bowling alley, weight room, ceramics and crafts rooms, and a bouldering cave. It was built in 1958 and as far as I know it's the second-oldest building on station. Hut 10 is the oldest, built in 1957. However it had a significant remodel in 1988 and looks much newer than it is. The rec building definitely looks more like a remnant from the old days. In fact there's probably enough interesting things inside to warrant its own webpage....if I get around to it. The other thing is the dome in the background. I think this same dome is still here on station, in the same approximate location. But it sits on a different building....this picture is from 1962, however the building with the dome today was built in 1969, evidently to replace the old building shown in this picture. It's not used anymore, but in the Navy days the dome housed some balloon tracking equipment. I have heard a funny story about this - it seems whatever the Navy was launching aroused the interest of skuas during the summer. The skuas would frequently damage the balloon and/or the payloads right after launch. Very irritating. So, they took to launching two balloons - one with a pack of hot dogs to divert the skuas followed by the real balloon.

This is a picture of building 156, current home of the dome from the picture above.

Looks like a galley worker just took out some trash here. I don't recognize any of the buildings in this one.

A picture of Williams Field, 1962. The plane on the left is an R4D, i.e. the military version of the DC-3 (thanks to Joe for clueing me in on this - he maintains a good site with a wealth of VXE-6 information here). It's approaching Winfly as I write this, and the Fleet Ops crews are out at Pegasus getting the airfield ready for the August Winfly flights. Those guys are pretty hard core to be working out there every day. I'm actually planning to accompany my friend Dave out to the Tac-An when the first flight comes in. He's the senior tech in charge of the ground navigational equipment for the airfields this winter. In the back of my mind, I'm thinking about coming back to work for ATS (the contractor which handles many airfield and weather functions here) as a technician. This would be a few years from now, but it would be nice to see the equipment first-hand while I have the chance. Plus, it's a great photo op....

Here's a vintage forklift doing its thing out on the sea ice.

More of the forklift action!

Cool old tracked vehicle sitting on the sea ice just near McMurdo. This is actually an older model Tucker Sno-Cat. A few 80's vintage Sno-Cats are still sitting around station, and every now and then someone will fire one up.

Some random cargo sitting around, with the forklift too.

Here's an aerial picture of Hut Point Peninsula (and most of Ross Island) from 1959. The station manager, Eric Hobday, found a bunch of old Navy photos in his office. He decided to scan these in an effort to preserve them. He put them on the shared drive, and I snagged this one. There were many, many more, but this one was the coolest. There were pics from all over - the Dry Valleys, the Ice Shelf, all over the Ross Sea region, etc. Williams Field is notable in this picture for two reasons. First, even back in 1959, the major airstrip was called Williams Field. Second, it's located on the sea ice. Presently, this location is the home of the annual Sea Ice Runway. These days, Williams field is the skiway which is built on the Ross Ice Shelf, about 6 miles from Scott Base (out of view to the right of this picture).