The United States In Antarctica

"This document represents the final report of the United States Antarctic Program External Panel. The report has the unanimous approval of all 11 panel members and draws upon our collective experience which includes some 44 individual trips to Antarctica involving visits to all three U. S. stations, each research ship, support icebreakers and numerous field sites. As a panel, we visited McMurdo Station and South Pole Station and toured support facilities at Christchurch. We received approximately 70 briefings and conducted 80 “one-on-one” meetings with individuals involved in virtually all aspects of the Antarctic Program. Over 200 inputs were received in response to our request for “public comments". During visits to McMurdo and the Pole, the Panel conducted informal “Town Meetings” and was the beneficiary of numerous comments by members of those communities having first-hand experience in day-to-day operations. We are most appreciative of the candor and professionalism with which we were treated by all those with whom we came into contact, and in particular the members of the National Science Foundation who so expertly and constructively supported our efforts. We believe the U. S. Antarctic Program is well managed, involves high quality science and is important to the region as well as to the United States. We also believe that in the current budget environment, costs must be reduced, preferably through increased efficiency and “reinvention,” but, if not, through reduced scope. Recommendations are offered herein to help ensure the continued viability of the program into the 21st century."--

1892, New Mexico. A wolfpack roams the Currumpaw River Valley, preying on the vast cattle and sheep herds of the area. Their leader, Lobo possesses such cunning that local ranchers are unable to trap the pack. Due to his knowledge of wolf behaviour, Ernest Thompson Seton, a naturalist, is employed by ranchers to ride them of Lobo's pack.

When this book originally appeared in 1990, it was hailed as an important new work because of the author's access to Adm. Richard E. Byrd's just-released private papers. Previous books on the legendary polar explorer had to rely on sources subject to the admiral's vigilant censorship or the control of his heirs and friends. With this study Eugene Rodgers provides a scrupulously honest and objective account of Byrd's 1929 expedition to Antarctica. Without discrediting the expedition's success or Byrd's leadership, Rodgers shows that the admiral was not the saintly hero he and the press depicted. Nor was the expedition without its problems. Interviews with surviving members of the expedition together with a wealth of other new material indicate that Byrd, contrary to his claims, was not a good navigator--his pilots usually had to find their way by dead reckoning--and that he was not on the actual flight that discovered Marie Byrd Land. The book further reveals a crisis over drunkenness among the men (including Byrd), the admiral's fear of mutiny, and his rewriting of news stories from the pole to embellish his own image.

American hero and explorer Admiral Richard E. Byrd, Jr. tells the story of his first journey through Antarctica and the founding of a series of camps and bases referred to as “Little America.” Over the years, many similar areas were developed as camps and research areas on Byrd’s Antarctic missions, but the founding of “Little America” required great courage and leadership. In awe of the unforgiving landscape, he eagerly met its treacherous challenges. Byrd outlines the blueprint for his first mission to Antarctica and provides a glimpse into the obstacles he and his team overcame at the world’s end. Reissued for today’s readers, Admiral Byrd’s classic explorations by land, air, and sea transport us to the farthest reaches of the globe. As companions on Byrd’s journeys, modern audiences experience the polar landscape through Byrd’s own struggles, doubts, revelations, and triumphs and share the excitement of these timeless adventures.