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Rochford is in Pennington County about 16 miles northwest of Hill City on a gravel road that leads
through Mystic on its way to Lead and Deadwood. I found the drive
excellent when I visited in July 2001. The road, while unpaved most of the
way, is smooth and well graded.
Rochford itself is anything but ghostly. Several photos of the town
appear in the Parker/Lambert book, but I found little resemblance between those
photos taken in the early 1970s and what is there today.
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This is the only photo appearing in the Parker/Lambert
book (1974) that is of something that is recognizable today, at least as far as I
was able to determine. It is (obviously) the Irish Gulch Dance Hall. |
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The same building in July 2001. The words "Dance Hall"
have been painted over, and the entire exterior siding and front
appearance have changed. The windows are smaller and there is just a
single door. It looks almost like a residence now.
Information
added May 23, 2003: The owner of the red jeep parked in front saw this
website and was kind enough to write and tell me that the building has
been in his wife's family for a number of years and that it is now used as
a hunting lodge. |
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| Photo taken in July 2001 of an old building in Rochford
which was at one time a gas station.
The sign says "Rochford, pop. 25, elev. 5305."
Below left is a photo
of the gas station sent to me on June 20, 2007 by Mark Land who once lived
in the town. It was taken in the 1970s when the station was still
operating. The house behind is obviously a more recent addition to
the scenery. Below center is a photo of the Moonshine Gulch
Saloon, and below right is the entrance to the Standby Mine. Both
photos were taken in 1980 and were sent to me on May 22, 2008 by Mark Land.
As of early 2009, the Moonshine Gulch Saloon still stands and is still
in operation, but the Standby Mine structure is now gone. |
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| Another view of
the Standby Mine entrance from slightly farther away and taken in 1985,
five years later than the photo at above right. In this photo, the
center portion of the roof has caved in. |
The
photos at left and right are from July 1985 and show parts of the
interior of the mine. The left photo shows one of the wooden,
seven-foot diameter "bullwheels" that were powered by steam engines and
drove the "stamps" that ground the ore into fine particles. At
center is a similar photo of the bullwheel that appears on page 30 of
the Parker/Lambert book. |
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Photo taken in 1980 showing the remains of the bridge across the creek
leading to the mine. |
The photo on the right was taken in 1985 and shows the remains of the tramway leading into the
mine. On the left is a photo from the essentially the same vantage
point appearing on page 159 of the Parker/Lambert book and dating from
before 1973. It shows the tramway pretty much intact. |
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| One of the better kept buildings in Rochford
is the
school. |
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Antique shop in Rochford that calls itself the "Small of
America." Get it?
The proprietors were very friendly. |
| On October 12, 2003, I received an email from Lorri May of Wentworth, South
Dakota who also has a connection to Rochford. She sent the following:
Rochford is my favorite place in the Black Hills, mainly because my dad was
located here when he was 18 years old in 1934. He was in the CCC - Civilian
Conservation Corps - an organization established by the President to put young
men to work after the Great Depression hit in 1929. Dad was put to work clearing
trees in the overgrowth near Rochford. Several years ago my ex-husband and I
tracked down where Dad's camp had been and showed Dad pictures of it when we got
home. It was very interesting! There wasn't much left of the camp as Dad said
the military (who ran it) cleared out everything when they left a site. We could
see the depression where the creek that they dug was and the hole where the well
was. In talking with one of my fellow teachers at the time, we figured out that
her dad was at Rochford at the same time my dad was! I told Dad about it and he
remembered the guy, even 60 years later! They lived in the same cabin together. |
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