Klerksdorp (E 10)

Name: Klerksdorp

Google count: 548,000 for Klerksdorp with Safesearch on (SA)
Date: 24 January 2010

Historic fact:


Klerksdorp is a city and administrative district located in the North West Province (formerly Western Transvaal),
South Africa.
History:
The city was founded in 1837 when the Voortrekkers settled on the banks of the Schoonspruit ("Clear stream"), which flows through the town. Klerksdorp is the oldest European (white) settlement of the then Transvaal.

The most prominent of the first settlers was C.M. du Plooy who claimed a farm of about 160 km², called it Elandsheuwel ("Hill of the Eland"). He gave plots of land and communal grazing rights on this farm to other Voortrekkers in return for their labour in building a dam and an irrigation canal. This collection of smallholdings was later given the name of Klerksdorp in honour of the first landdrost (magistrate) of the area, Jacob de Clerq.

In August 1886 gold was discovered in the Klerksdorp district by M.G. Jansen van Vuuren as well as on the Witwatersrand, which lies about 160 km to the east. As a consequence, thousands of fortune-seekers descended on the small village, turning it into a town with 70 taverns and even a stock exchange of its own.

However, the nature of the gold reef demanded expensive and sophisticated equipment to mine and extract the gold, causing the majority of diggers to move away in the late 1890s and leading to a decline in the gold mining industry.

During the Second Boer War (1899-1902), heavy fighting occurred in the area. The most famous of the battles around Klerksdorp, is that of the Battle of Ysterspruit (Iron Stream), in which the Boer General, Koos de la Rey, achieved a great victory. He battle is one of the most celebrated of the general's career, being the battle in which the Boer soldiers pioneered the art of firing from horseback. On April 11, 1902, Rooiwal, near Klerkdorp, saw
the Battle of Rooiwal, the last major engagement of the war, where a Boer charge was beaten off by entrenched British troops.

More information: http://www.africaninvitation.co.za/towns/Klerksdorp

Other interesting info:

Where to stay: http://www.africaninvitation.co.za/towns/Klerksdorp