Site 2 in 1958
By Frank BenleinPhoto Gallery to go with the story. The numbers in square brackets [S-1] refer to the picture numbers.
I made several trips to Site 2 in 1958. When we got up on the ice cap there was a weather station called Site 1 [S-1]. You can see the recorder box to the left. That was always our first stop. Then we were off looking for the barrels. Most of the times I went we took barrels and marked the trail (no GPS). When you got close to Site 2 you saw the tower then the top of the hut [S-2]. Then you were there. [S-3]. From what you traveled in in 1996 was a little different to what we had 1958 [S-4].
When we first started going to Site 2 we had to dig out the entrance [S-5]. Then later there was a plywood entrance made [S-6] and wasnÕt that much digging to do [S-7]. Mr. Cronk [S-8] shows how simple it was to slide in the old entrance. Of course there was time for looking around to see if any of the neighbors were coming over? [S-9].
Once down you were under the surface and you were in the ice tunnels [S-10 and S-11]. That led to the entrance to the hut [S-12]. There were a couple of places to store food and supplies in the tunnel, and of course there was no refrigerator! You can see we were well supplied [S-13 and S-14]. One thing we did was to keep chopping the walls of the tunnels, as like you know the frost and the pressure made them close in [S-15].
Down the tunnel toward the deep shaft was the most obnoxious generator that was [S-16]. Once you got it running it would produce light. But you really canÕt blame it being cooped up in an ice box? Also you best open up the exhaust vent for two reasons. One to keep the fumes out of the tunnel, and two to get rid of the back pressure. You had to crank and crank and crank that thing, as after all it was cold!
The next thing was to light the heating stove so we had heat and also melt snow and ice for water [S-17]. For cooking we had a gas stove, as shown by our expert cooks [S-18 and S-19].
Inside the hut was our radio and weather station [S-20 and S-21]. We had most of the recorders for weather in side the hut except for the wind direction, so we punched a hole up and out and made a weather vain out of some cans. So no more going out side for that. We had to check the weather at certain times then radio the information back to the base [S-22 and S-23]. I really think they were checking up on us to see if we took off?
As you can see in the photos we didnÕt trust that generator and we had plenty of flashlights and gas lanterns. You had to improvise at times even for a cup of tea or coffee as Mr. Borrello is in the process of demonstrating in [S-24 and S-25]. In the next photo Mr Borrello is showing the proper way to cut frozen hamburger to make supper [S-26]. You will notice the new floor I put down for the occasion?
As you can see we had the latest in bed linen and inner spring mattress and the storage space was all used [S-27]. Since of course TV reception was bad and no TV, after a busy day a book was next for entertainment. I put this last photo in to show you what the table looked like when I was there [S-29 compare with 96 photo]. In the photo IÕm rebuilding the carburetor for the generator.
Like I told you there was only the one time while I was at Site 2 that we had a close call and that was when Mr. Ommundsen and Mr. Bednarz were over come from the exhaust. The only thing on any of my trips to Site 2 was on the way back with the dozer and the wagon. Coming off the ice cap the wagon tried to pass the dozer and things got a little rough for awhile. There was no place for me to jump because the dozer was sliding to the left and the wagon was on my right. I was getting close to the cliff by the bay so I figured I needed a bath anyway? I got the dozer in high range and gave her all the fuel I could and I guess the wagon knew it had better get behind me where it belonged, so it did.
Well this is what I have on Site 2.
Frank Benlein, 2007