Little Rockford was an Antarctic exploration base from December 1958 to January 1965, located on the Ross Ice Shelf, south of the Bay of Whales. Little Rockford was a field camp and weather station along the Little America tractor trail and was located between McMurdo Sound and Byrd Station, 160 miles from Little America. It was named after Rockford, Illinois, 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, and the first man to land at the South Pole by airplane.