VOLUME - .V, 'NUMBER 16, 18 APRIL I960
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Christ church, N. Z. (AFPS) - "Why talk of an airport on the moon befor we
have established on on our own last continent?"
The woras were those of a visitor to Antarctica, speculating about the chan
ce of ^ne south polar wastes one day becoming an attractinn for tourists*
Whg'c gave substance to his seemingly far-fetched notion was the arrival here
of some of the first products of Antarctica to be brought out of the area -two
one-ton marble boulders that will be cut into cornerstones for hospital con
struct ion. *
They w«re presented by Rear Adm David M. Tyree, Commander of Antarctica’s
Naval Support Forces, in recognition of Christchurch’s support of U*S. Deep
freeze expiditions. The boulders came, according to one polar expertj from ’’the
* most promising real estate in all of Antarctica’s 5,500,000 square miles’’ -
Marble, Point. ' * •
Frederick G. Vosburgh, a vice-president of the National Geographic Society,
reported fcfter a visit to Antarctica the "Marble Point’s fame potential lies
not in its marble, though ancient glaciers have left many chunks of it . about,
’ J -but in the fact that, it is: free Jrom ice*. re^orjahle- lewl,*Andi big enough for
a modern airfield.
"It is the only spot yet found in Antarctice," he added, "where engineers
have pronounced it practicable to build a'dry-land international airport."
More than two years ago, Marble Point was the scent of the first wheels-on
dirt landing in Antarctica. Since then Navy ' Sea-bees have served out a runway
long enough bo accomodate light aircraft.
Tnc obstacle to building a dryland ‘ airport and ship-mooring pier at Marble
Pol;:/ ‘s, he says,.the cost, although it "might not prove insuperable if the
proclem were attacked on an international basis."
One can easily envision the day when passengers will be stopping over to
see such sights as the Taylor Dry Valley, the Ferrar Glacier,, and the colony
of comical Adelie penguins at Cape Royds.
Just imagine, a vacation in the wastes of the Antarctica,’ Somewhat like AdakJ