The author discusses three archaeological investigations of historic sites in the polar regions. The first site is that of the Solomon A. Andree expedition camp on White Island, Svalbard. This fateful ballooning expedition to the North Pole in 1897 was the first experiment in polar aeronautics. Andree and his colleagues gave their lives but opened the door to polar flight, the backbone of polar logistics today. The other site, East Base, on Stonington Island off the Antarctic Peninsula, served the 1939-1941 U.S. Antarctic Service Expedition, under Admiral Richard Byrd, the first U.S. government-sponsored scientific and aerial mapping effort in Antarctica. In 1992, a team of archaeologists documented and secured the site that had been recently recognized as an historic monument by the Antarctic treaty nations. The third site is Marble Point on Victoria Land across from Ross Island and McMurdo Station. In conjunction with the IGY 1957-1958, a massive effort was put into laying out a 10,000-foot year-round runway and creating a fresh water reservoir and other base facilities. It was one of the premier locations for strategic aviation in Antarctica. The site was archaeologically surveyed and original engineering documentation from 1956-1957 offers superb baselines for studying permafrost, erosion, and human disturbances in the Antarctic environment. These types of sites are in situ monuments to human courage, ingenuity, and perseverance on a par with NASA's exploration of space. They require careful management and protection following the same principles as historic sites within the United States and in other nations.