Legendary Explorer Scott's Antarctic Hut to be Saved

British explorer, Robert Falcon Scott's hut at Cape Evans, Ross Island, has remained intact for nearly 100 years. CREDIT: Josh Landis/NSF. View full size image

An historic preservation group will save the Antarctic hut where Captain Robert Falcon Scott plotted his ill-fated expedition to the South Pole.

The U.K. Antarctic Heritage Trust reached its fundraising goals on Jan. 4 and announced they will restore Scott's hut, reported The Herald Scotland. The hut was built at Cape Evans on Ross Island in 1911.

Scott and his crew were in a race with Norwegian Roald Amundsen to be first to the South Pole. Amundsen made it to the South Pole on Dec. 14, 1911, and reached the safety of Australia three months later. Scott found his way to the pole on Jan. 17, 1912, but he and his team died on the way back, stuck in a freezing blizzard without food or fuel. [See Amundsen's and Scott's journeys in images .]

Scott's hut has survived through the years but needs major repairs to preserve the thousands of artifacts it holds. The Antarctic Heritage Trust raised $5.5 million (£3.5 million) for initial planning and restoration work on another hut, and then raised an additional $5.5 million for preserving Scott's hut. The New Zealand Antarctic Heritage Trust will manage the project.

One of the project's leaders, Gordon Macdonald, told The Herald that "There are still two dogs in there [Scott's hut], still in collars and chains on the floor. Close by, the two shell casings used to kill them are still lying on the ground. It is amazing. It is a very definite picture of what happened, an amazing connection with the past.

"The men had to leave in a hurry. They couldn't take the dogs with them so they were shot in their tracks."

There's no telling what else may be found in the hut. A similar restoration project of the hut of Sir Ernest Shackleton, of the 1907 to 1909 Antarctic expedition, unearthed a stash of whisky frozen in the ice under the hut.

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Reach OurAmazingPlanet staff writer Brett Israel at bisrael@techmedianetwork.com. Follow him on Twitter @btisrael.