Little America was a series of Antarctic exploration bases, located on the Ross Ice Shelf, south of the Bay of Whales.
The first base in the series was established in January 1929 by Richard Byrd,[1] and was abandoned in 1930.[2] This was where the film With Byrd at the South Pole (1930) was filmed, about Byrd's trip to the South Pole.
Little America II was established in 1934, some 30 feet above the site of the original base, with some of the original base accessed via tunnel.[1][2] This base was briefly set adrift in 1934, but the iceberg fused to the main glacier.[2]
Little America III was established 6 miles to the north, for the 1940-41 season, and Little America IV was established in 1946-47.[2]
Little America V was established at Kainan Bay, some 30 miles to the east on January 3, 1956.[3] Little America V served as the American base in the South Polar program in the International Geophysical Year.[3]
In a later expedition to Antarctica, Byrd's expedition spotted Little America's towers still standing, including the Jacobs Wind plant installed in 1933.[4]
Little America established the first successful radio broadcasting from Antarctica, making regular broadcasts that could be picked up by household radio sets in the United States, more than 11,000 miles away around the Earth's curvature.
During the 1934-35 expedition, many souvenir letters were sent from Little America, using a commemorative postage stamp issued by the U.S. government.
The site of Little America III was carried to sea in 1963.[1] The site of Little America V went to sea on Iceberg B-9 in 1987.[5]