Little Rockford was an

Antarctic The Antarctic (, ; commonly ) is the polar regions of Earth, polar region of Earth that surrounds the South Pole, lying within the Antarctic Circle. It is antipodes, diametrically opposite of the Arctic region around the North Pole. The Antar ...

exploration base from December 1958 to January 1965, located on the

Ross Ice Shelf The Ross Ice Shelf is the largest ice shelf of Antarctica (, an area of roughly and about across: about the size of France). It is several hundred metres thick. The nearly vertical ice front to the open sea is more than long, and between high ...

, south of the

Bay of Whales The Bay of Whales was a natural ice harbour, or iceport, indenting the front of the Ross Ice Shelf just north of Roosevelt Island, Antarctica, at the southernmost point of the world's ocean. While the Ross Sea stretches considerably further s ...

. Little Rockford was a field camp and weather station along the Little America tractor trail and was located between

McMurdo Sound The McMurdo Sound is a sound in Antarctica, known as the southernmost passable body of water in the world, located approximately from the South Pole. Captain James Clark Ross discovered the sound in February 1841 and named it after Lieutenant ...

and

Byrd Station The Byrd Station is a former research station established by the United States during the International Geophysical Year by U.S. Navy Seabees during Operation Deep Freeze II in West Antarctica. It was a year-round base until 1972, and then se ...

, 160 miles from Little America. It was named after

Rockford, Illinois Rockford is a city in Winnebago County, Illinois, Winnebago and Ogle County, Illinois, Ogle counties in the U.S. state of Illinois. Located in far northern Illinois on the banks of the Rock River (Mississippi River tributary), Rock River, Rockfor ...

, the hometown of Admiral George Dufek. Admiral Dufek was in charge of the United States military mission, through the United States Navy, to support research in Antarctica named

Operation Deep Freeze Operation Deep Freeze is the code name for a series of United States missions to Antarctica, beginning with "Operation Deep Freeze I" in 1955–56, followed by "Operation Deep Freeze II", "Operation Deep Freeze III", and so on. (There was an init ...

, and the first man to land at the

South Pole The South Pole, also known as the Geographic South Pole or Terrestrial South Pole, is the point in the Southern Hemisphere where the Earth's rotation, Earth's axis of rotation meets its surface. It is called the True South Pole to distinguish ...

by airplane. Originally, Little Rockford was established near the western edge of the

close to the King Edward VII Peninsula in December 1958. The following year it was relocated to the east edge of

Marie Byrd Land Marie Byrd Land (MBL) is an unclaimed region of Antarctica. With an area of , it is the largest unclaimed territory on Earth. It was named after the wife of American naval officer Richard E. Byrd, who explored the region in the early 20th centu ...

. Little Rockford's use was discontinued in January 1965.

References

{{Polar exploration Outposts of Antarctica United States Antarctic Program Outposts of the Ross Dependency 1958 establishments in Antarctica 1965 disestablishments in Antarctica King Edward VII Land Outposts of Marie Byrd Land

See also

References