Rochford is located in Pennington County, in Black Hills, Badlands & Lakes Region. It lies on North Rochford Road and Rochford Road, and the Burlington Northern line.
Between US 385 and the Wyoming line, Rochford is close to the Rapid City, South Dakota metro area.
It was founded in 1877 when gold was discovered in a canyon in the western Black Hills. Rochford became a railroad town in 1889 when the Burlington Northern laid rail there as they pushed tracks to Deadwood from Custer. Today a few people still live in the idyllic location. Mill ruins dominate the town, qualifying it to some as a ghost town.