BlockFrom the record
One of 19 National Register listings published here for Perkins County · listed in 1987 · category: Building · built in 1900.
Sources: the case file at the National Archives · the National Register database, National Park Service
Rockford No. 40 School
Built in 1900. Listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1987.
The listing
- What is counted as historic. The nomination lists 3 buildingss as contributing to the listing.
- Address. 15 mi. NE of Bison, Bison, 57638
- When was it listed? April 1987
- Category. building
- Also known as. Harding and Perkins Counties MRA
- Township. Liberty township
- When was it built? 1900
- National Register reference number. 87000549 - the number the National Park Service assigned this property when it was listed, and the key its nomination file is catalogued under at the National Archives.
Fires near this property
32 since 2003Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal wildfire occurrence database lists 32 fires within 5 miles of Rockford No. 40 School between 2003 and 2020, burning about 1,615 acres in total. 12 started naturally. None was recorded as arson. Distance is straight-line from the map coordinates, so a fire counted here may appear on a neighbouring settlement's page as well.
| Reported cause | Fires |
|---|---|
| Equipment and vehicle use | 13 |
| Natural | 12 |
| Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 5 |
| Smoking | 1 |
| Debris and open burning | 1 |
The most recent of them, most recent first, with the day each was reported and the service that recorded it.
| Date | Cause | Size | Reported by | Name on the report |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 5 September 2010 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 30 acres | South Dakota Wildland Fire Suppression | PULIS |
| 28 September 2012 | Equipment and vehicle use | 167 acres | South Dakota Wildland Fire Suppression | 4 MILE |
| 2 September 2013 | Equipment and vehicle use | under an acre | Perkins County | HWY 73 |
| 5 August 2010 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 20 acres | South Dakota Wildland Fire Suppression | LABOR DAY |
| 27 August 2003 | Natural | 65 acres | South Dakota Wildland Fire Suppression | PRIEST |
| 2 August 2016 | Equipment and vehicle use | 4.7 acres | South Dakota Wildland Fire Suppression | BIG BLUE STEM |
| 2 August 2012 | Natural | under an acre | Dakota Prairie National Grasslands | WINDMILL |
| 12 August 2010 | Natural | 1.0 acres | South Dakota Wildland Fire Suppression | BALE FIRE 2 |
Mines and quarries near this property
2 within 5 milesRegional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal mineral resources record lists 2 workings within 5 miles of Rockford No. 40 School: 2 producers. All of them still produce. What was taken out: Sand and Gravel, Construction, Lignite, Sand and Gravel, Construction. Distance is straight-line from the map coordinates, so a quarry counted here may appear on a neighbouring settlement's page as well.
| Where | Site | Commodity | Status | Recorded |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Haynes Quad | Lignite, Sand and Gravel, Construction | Producer | ||
| Unnamed Prospect | Sand and Gravel, Construction | Producer |
Storms near this property
60 of 81 shownRegional context, not property-specific evidence. The National Weather Service names Bison, the town this property stands in, in 81 storm reports between 1997 and 2025: 38 thunderstorm wind, 37 hail, 2 flash flood, 2 tornado. No death or injury is recorded in these reports. Each account below is quoted exactly as the forecast office filed it, from the NOAA Storm Events Database, and each date opens the federal record of that event.
| When | Event | Place named | Harm | What the report says |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| July 2005 | Thunderstorm Wind | Bison | $500,000 | Many trees were downed, power poles blown over east of town, roofs damaged, and windows of houses and automobiles broken by wind driven hail. |
| July 2001 | Flash Flood | Bison | $200,000 | no account filed |
| July 2005 | Thunderstorm Wind | Bison | $20,000 | Machine shed destroyed by wind. |
| April 2005 | Dust Devil | Bison | $20,000 | no account filed |
| May 2013 | Hail | Bison | $10,000 | no account filed |
| June 1997 | Thunderstorm Wind | Bison | $5,000 | no account filed |
| June 2025 | Thunderstorm Wind | Bison | - | SD mesonet recorded wind gust. |
| July 2024 | Thunderstorm Wind | Bison | - | The spotter estimated wind gusts at near 70 mph. |
| June 2024 | Thunderstorm Wind | Bison | - | Wind gusts were estimated at near 70 mph. |
| June 2024 | Thunderstorm Wind | Bison | - | The spotter estimated wind gusts at around 60 mph. |
| July 2024 | Thunderstorm Wind | Bison | - | The spotter estimated wind gusts at around 60 mph. |
| September 2023 | Thunderstorm Wind | Bison | - | The spotter estimated wind gusts at around 60 mph. |
| July 2022 | Thunderstorm Wind | Bison | - | The spotter estimated wind gusts at 60 mph. |
| June 2022 | Thunderstorm Wind | Bison | - | Tree branches to two inches in diameter were downed around town. |
| June 2022 | Thunderstorm Wind | Bison | - | Wind gusts were estimated at 60 mph. |
| June 2021 | Hail | Bison | - | There was damage to a rain gauge and downed branches from gusty winds. |
| June 2020 | Thunderstorm Wind | Bison | - | Trees were blown down on Bixby Road. |
| June 2020 | Thunderstorm Wind | Bison | - | Wind gusts were estimated at 60 mph. |
| June 2020 | Thunderstorm Wind | Bison | - | Wind gusts were estimated at 60 mph. |
| June 2018 | Thunderstorm Wind | Bison | - | Wind gusts were estimated at 60 mph. |
| June 2015 | Tornado (EF0) | Bison | - | A tornado touched down in open country east of Bison; it caused no damage. |
| September 2013 | Thunderstorm Wind | Bison | - | Wind gusts were estimated at 60 mph. |
| July 2011 | Thunderstorm Wind | Bison | - | A spotter reported wind gusts around 70 mph. |
| July 2011 | Thunderstorm Wind | Bison | - | Wind gusts were estimated at 60 mph. |
| July 2011 | Thunderstorm Wind | Bison | - | Wind gusts were estimated at 60 mph. |
| May 2011 | Flash Flood | Bison | - | Flash flooding was reported along Thunder Butte and Rabbit Creeks in eastern Perkins County. |
| May 2011 | Flood | Bison | - | Rain runoff caused flooding along Deep Creek and the Moreau River in southeastern Perkins County. |
| July 2010 | Thunderstorm Wind | Bison | - | Wind gusts were estimated at 60 mph. |
| June 2009 | Thunderstorm Wind | Bison | - | None. |
| June 2005 | Hail | Bison | - | Combination of large hail and wind broke windows on a house, barn, and automobile. |
| July 2024 | Hail | Bison | - | no account filed |
| July 2024 | Thunderstorm Wind | Bison | - | no account filed |
| July 2024 | Thunderstorm Wind | Bison | - | no account filed |
| September 2024 | Thunderstorm Wind | Bison | - | no account filed |
| July 2023 | Hail | Bison | - | no account filed |
| September 2023 | Thunderstorm Wind | Bison | - | no account filed |
| May 2022 | Hail | Bison | - | no account filed |
| May 2022 | Hail | Bison | - | no account filed |
| July 2022 | Hail | Bison | - | no account filed |
| July 2022 | Hail | Bison | - | no account filed |
| July 2022 | Hail | Bison | - | no account filed |
| June 2022 | Thunderstorm Wind | Bison | - | no account filed |
| June 2022 | Thunderstorm Wind | Bison | - | no account filed |
| June 2021 | Thunderstorm Wind | Bison | - | no account filed |
| July 2021 | Hail | Bison | - | no account filed |
| July 2020 | Hail | Bison | - | no account filed |
| August 2020 | Hail | Bison | - | no account filed |
| June 2020 | Hail | Bison | - | no account filed |
| June 2020 | Hail | Bison | - | no account filed |
| September 2019 | Hail | Bison | - | no account filed |
| May 2018 | Hail | Bison | - | no account filed |
| June 2018 | Thunderstorm Wind | Bison | - | no account filed |
| June 2018 | Thunderstorm Wind | Bison | - | no account filed |
| June 2018 | Hail | Bison | - | no account filed |
| July 2018 | Thunderstorm Wind | Bison | - | no account filed |
| May 2016 | Hail | Bison | - | no account filed |
| July 2016 | Hail | Bison | - | no account filed |
| July 2016 | Thunderstorm Wind | Bison | - | no account filed |
| July 2016 | Hail | Bison | - | no account filed |
| June 2013 | Thunderstorm Wind | Bison | - | no account filed |
Map coverage status
No historic map-sheet match is published for this property yet. That does not mean no map exists. This record needs a coordinate-quality review before it can be joined to a sheet boundary. Browse the county's mapped places while that work is pending.
Sources for this property
| National Archives record | The nomination case file for reference 87000549 in Record Group 79. |
| Perkins County | All 19 listed properties in this county. |
Provenance
- Listing record. National Park Service National Register of Historic Places, listed-properties dataset, current to 2026-05-22.
- Map join. Address geocoded through the United States Census geocoder, then tested against the published boundary of every sheet in the USGS Historical Topographic Map Collection.
- How this page is made. Listing fields come from federal records; map-sheet coverage is a labelled coordinate-to-boundary calculation, not a source-field claim.
- Wildfire. Short, Karen C. 2022. Spatial wildfire occurrence data for the United States, 1992-2020 [FPA_FOD_20221014]. 6th Edition. Fort Collins, CO: Forest Service Research Data Archive. https://doi.org/10.2737/RDS-2013-0009.6 Collected with United States Government funding and usable without additional permissions or fees.
- Mines and quarries. USGS Mineral Resources Data System (MRDS) https://mrdata.usgs.gov/mrds/ A work of the United States government, no copyright under 17 U.S.C. 105.
- Storms. NOAA National Centers for Environmental Information, Storm Events Database https://www.ncei.noaa.gov/stormevents/ A work of the United States government, no copyright under 17 U.S.C. 105. Narratives are quoted verbatim from the National Weather Service report and are not edited or summarised.