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Introduction
| Precolonial Occupation | Voortrekker
Settlement | Early Prospecting INTRODUCTIONDominating an extensive and rugged area, the summit of Mount Anderson appears to the Ranch visitor in its imposing grandeur. In the 1920's Prime Minister Jan Smuts wrote that the tremendous escarpment around Mount Anderson contained some of the most magnificent scenery of the whole African continent'. Now encircled by a modern road system but still isolated and inaccessible, Mount Anderson has been in the centre of the vortex of Transvaal natural and human history. The beauty of Mount Anderson is enhanced by its immense hydrological significance. It is, quite literally, the wellspring of the water supply of Mpumalanga. Near its summit gather the principal drainage lines and headwaters of rivers which flow both east and west - the Ohrigstad, the Klein Spekboom and the Spekboom, the Kliprots, the Kranskloof, the Sabie, the Treur and the Blyde. Many of these rivers tumble down the cliffs of the escarpment in spectacular waterfalls - Mount Anderson, Bridal Veil, Horseshoe. The high altitude brings with it a cool climate throughout the year and high rainfall, often in the form of heavy mist. The rivers originate in springs which ooze from high altitude bogs or sponges and the hillsides glisten with sheets of water. The streams are clear and fast-flowing, plunging down over rocks in waterfalls and rapids. Trees line the stream beds and ferns overhang the waterfalls, and birdlife and wild flowers are abundant. Today, as a Water Catchment Reserve, Mount Anderson Ranch is little disturbed by man, and wildlife such as eland, blesbok, mountain reedbuck and zebra take refuge in its seclusion. Wild flowers, including some rare alpine species and a close relative of South Africa's national flower, the Protea, flourish in the veld, on the sides of the mountains and along the edges of the streams. Mount Anderson also has an interesting and complex geology. The summit region is rich in minerals, including both valuable gold and rare titanite. In the 1870s, it was part of the first South African gold rush, and in the 1920s and 1930s Mount Anderson had a brief gold rush of its own when the Mount Anderson Gold Field supported prosperous little mines such as Golden Hill, Jackpot, Little Joker, Formosa and Finsbury. The abandoned workings can still be seen and they provide a window into the fascinating human drama that digging for riches in this craggy landscape entailed. The name of Mount Anderson commemorates two Irish brothers who were both surveyors in the Transvaal: William Alfred Blackburn Anderson and Harry Mitchell Anderson. In 1883 William surveyed the boundaries of the farm Hartebeesvlakte 163JT, which borders on Mount Anderson Ranch and gave his name to the peak of Mount Anderson (which is actually on the farm Mountain Top). At 2284m, Mount Anderson was for many years thought to be the highest point in the Transvaal but a resurvey done some decades ago showed that De Berg (2331m) in the Steenkampsberg to the west, was slightly higher. Mount Anderson Ranch comprises three old Transvaal settler farms, Kranskloof 554KT, Kliprots 558KT and 158JT and Goedverwacht 152JT. PRECOLONIAL OCCUPATIONMount Anderson's great height, steep and inhospitable landscape, harsh climate and lack of natural shelters made it unattractive to the early nomadic Stone-Age hunter-gatherers, the San (Bushmen). Thus, although there are rock paintings in the area, none has yet been found on Mount Anderson. By contrast, the rich, well watered grasslands in the river below and the area of nearby Sterkspruit, proved extremely attractive to later Iron-Age agro-pastoralists. The first modern, Late Iron Age people to live close to Mount Anderson - perhaps as early as the 1500s - were the Kwena. In the eighteenth century the Pedi, a Central Sotho group, arrived in the district. In the lower reaches of the Ohrigstad River valley on Mount Anderson Ranch one can see the ruins of African settlements. Although now overgrown with grass, they still seem to show a typical circular kraal construction - perhaps with a hut site in the centre. VOORTREKKER SETTLEMENTThe earliest white settlers in the Mount Anderson area were the Voortrekkers and the later story of the region is intimately bound up with theirs. The district was first settled by the followers of Andries Hendrik Potgieter, who founded the town of Andries Ohrigstad in 1845. Situated in an extremely attractive valley, Ohrigstad promised to be agriculturally fertile and seemed suitable for tropical agriculture. But just three years after its establishment the town was abandoned because of recurrent outbreaks of deadly malaria. Potgieter and his supporters left Ohrigstad, went north and founded Schoemansdal. After another disastrous year at Ohrigstad, the people who had remained moved south to Lydenburg (the town of suffering), its name commemorating the hardships its founders had endured. Until 1923 when the new municipality town was laid out, Ohrigstad was a ghost town. For decades there was no unity among the Voortrekker parties. Each owed allegiance to a strong leader, every one of whom was unwilling to give up his power or to share it. From the 1840s until 1852 there were four Voortrekker republics: Lydenburg (with its capital at Lydenburg), Zoutpansberg, Potchefstroom and Utrecht. Even after the Sand River Convention, friction and dissension among factions continued. By 1857 feelings in Lydenburg ran so high that the population broke away from the Transvaal and formed a republic of their own. Only in 1860 did Lydenburg re-join the South African Republic and pay allegiance to its president Marthinus Wessel Pretorius. EARLY PROSPECTINGLittle exploitative mineral wealth had been located between Cape Town and the Fish and Kei Rivers in the two centuries subsequent to the landing of Jan Van Riebeeck. Then in 1848 and 1851, the gold fields in Califiornia and Victoria respectively, were discovered and some interest began to develop in South Africa as the news spread. The Volksraad in the Transvaal, wishing to preserve their rural (somnambulant?) peace, took a firm stand against prospecting. However, restrictive edicts have seldom proved to be a barrier to progress, and various individuals began prospecting. Gold was detected in the Lydenburg District, in the Murchison hills (Gravelotte) in 1868/70, the Sutherland Range (along the Shingwedzi and Letaba Rivers) and around Mount Anderson and Mauch. Concerning this area, gold was located in and along both sides of the Spekboom River on the farm Nooitgedacht, situated between Natalshoop and Finsbury. However, in view of the state retaining all the rights, these fields were neither publicised nor exploited because of the fear of confiscation. Throughout its early history, the Transvaal was almost bankrupt and its currency worthless because there was no gold backing on any export earnings of consequence. Slowly it began to dawn on some of the Volksraad that gold mining would be of benefit to its people. On 21 December 1870 the Volksraad accepted the principle of rewarding discoverers of precious metals and this was given immediate legal authority. The following year it passed the first formal Mining Law. It reserved the right to mine to the State, which would control mining through a commissioner and no foreigner could own a gold mine. The Landdrost at Lydenburg was advised by numerous prospectors that gold had been discovered in his extensive district. Prospectors soon began to stream in and in no time digging at Lydenburg had moved upstream along the Spekboom River into the farms Finsbury, Little Joker, Formosa and De Kuilen. There is no record of the gold output between 1873 - 1877 but most would have come from the Sabie - Graskop - Pilgrim's sector, rather than from the Ohrigstad - Lydenburg deposits. THE SIEGE OF LYDENBURGBy 1877 the Transvaal Republic was on the verge of bankruptcy and President Burgers retained only the most tenuous hold over his subjects. This debacle in the Transvaal coincided with a renewed effort on the part of Britain to consolidate its holdings in southern Africa and to include the Boer republics in a federation of states under British hegemony. The moment came on 12 April 1877 when the Transvaal was annexed and Sir Theophilus Shepstone, the influential administrator from Natal, raised the Union Jack in Pretoria. At first the Boers seemed resigned to their lot, pleased to allow British troops to quell African resistance (particularly successful in the case of the Pedi) and to implement a more efficient and effective form of administrative government in the country. Once this was accomplished, however, dissatisfaction surfaced and by the end of 1880 the Boers were ready to dislodge their overlords. Fearing that such an uprising might take place, British garrisons had already been stationed in the major Transvaal towns; Pretoria, Potchefstroom, Rustenburg and Lydenburg. The Transvaal War of 1880-1881 is best known for the ignominious defeat of the British at Majuba in February 1881, which ended the war. After calm had been restored to the Transvaal, the new president, Paul Kruger, proved a stronger and more popular leader than his predecessor. In addition, the search for gold continued and valuable strikes were made almost every year. Mining operations were facilitated by new legislation. While previously each digger had paid a small licence fee to the government, the new arrangement was that the government awarded concessions to people who wished to begin mining operations. Eventually therefore, individual diggers were replaced by companies which were better financed and thus able to maximise both the technical and financial aspects of mining. THE BATTLE OF LONG TOM PASSThe first part of the South African War was characterised by sieges and set battles - the names of Ladysmith, Mafeking, Paardekraal, Spionkop and Colenso relate to some of the major events. When the British entered Pretoria, the capital of the enemy in June 1900, they expected the year-long war to be over and the Boers to capitulate. Instead, the Boer government merely abandoned Pretoria and set up operations at Waterval Onder in the eastern Transvaal. Another two years of fighting lay ahead. Guerilla warfare occurred all over the country, and some important action took place around Mount Anderson. From May 1900 British generals became aware that Lydenburg was being prepared for defence and that large supplies of arms and goods were being stored there. British forces were mobilised to the eastern Transvaal, but it was not until the Battle of Belfast (Bergendal) on 27 August that major combat took place. This was a great victory for Buller and the Boers retreated to Lydenburg. However, the Boers were no match for the massive British force that opposed them and Lydenburg was captured on 6 September without resistance. But the enemy did not surrender, instead they retreated to the farm Paardeplaats, high ground just south-west of Mount Anderson, from where they opened fire with their long-range guns. The following day Louis Botha's Long Toms on Paardeplaats commanded Lydenburg and its military camp outside the town. There was nothing for it but to attack Paardeplaats and the Boers were forced to retreat closer to Spitskop. On 9 September the Boers were still holding some of the rocky ridges around Mount Anderson along the Long Tom pass. A British force was sent after them and managed almost to reach the summit of the mountains. The Boers appeared to be an easy target, but the track was steep, cramped and winding and the Boers had placed their guns behind the Devil's Knuckles at the point where there is today a monument and replica of one of the guns. Because of the narrow track the British guns could not be brought from the rear to the front of the column to retaliate and by the next day the Boers were disappearing. The Boers had made good use of the natural fortress provided by the mountains and had escaped both death and capture in their shadow. THE SECOND GOLD RUSHAfter the South African war ended and peace was restored, prospectors were free to resume their work around the Transvaal. By this time, the Witwatersrand dominated the gold mining industry and it had become clear that the mines of the eastern Transvaal held little prospect for long-term significant prosperity. Forestry activities have obliterated much of the montane grasslands in the area and whilst no doubt visually attractive to some visitors, these exotic plantations are extremely damaging to the natural environment for they require vast quantities of underground water - in the region of 100 litre's per tree per day - in order to survive. South Africa is not a water-rich country and the forests of gum and pine trees consume far more than the rivers flowingdown from the Mount Anderson Catchment Reserve can produce. Many streams, which once rushed through the gold fields of Lydenburg, now flow only intermittently or have even ceased. The problem is compounded when the sources of these streams are themselves choked by exotic vegetation and polluted by excessive numbers of livestock. The Mount Anderson Water Catchment Reserve has rehabilitated the highland streams and its existence is therefore vital to the health of the water system of Mpumalanga. The water from the streams on the property is among the purest in the world. Despite an unpromising start, the Mount Anderson mining industry developed in the twentieth century and in 1914, the area was opened to prospecting and digging. The workings of the Nooitgedacht reef created a stir at this time and the farm was opened up as a public diggings and called the Mount Anderson Goldfields. These fields were extraordinarily difficult to work as they found it extremely hard to get Africans to labour for them. Thus in the mid 1920s the Mount Anderson fields were still attracting the same kinds of characters who had flocked to the district in the 1870s. The depression in South Africa ended in 1933 when the country joined Great Britain and others in abandoning the gold standard. This was an extremely controversial move at the time, and one which toppled the current South African government. Immediately the gold price rose from £4.25 per ounce to £6.23 per ounce and it continued to rise steadily until by 1939 it had reached £7.7. Naturally, this huge increase brought small mining operations back into the economic picture and Mount Anderson received a tremendous boost. A company with the romantic name of Golden Hill Mines bought out a number of small claims on the farm Kranskloof and it is their workings and other paraphernalia that can be seen on the Ranch today. The Mount Anderson Gold Field and its
reefs Nooitgedacht, Davidson, Button and Formosa, have left their
mark on South African mining history. This lode was opened up from
Kliprots to De Kuilen and worked until the gold ran out. The best
development was around Mount Anderson which is surrounded by a continuous
line of outcrop and has attracted more attention and yielded more
gold than any other flat lode in the Daspoort Stage.
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Mount Anderson Ranch, PO Box 55514, Northlands,
2116, Johannesburg, South Africa. |
The most important mines were Little Joker and Mountain Mine.