The earliest white settlers in the Mount Anderson area were the Voortrekkers, and the later stories of the region are intimately intertwined up with theirs. The followers of Andries Hendrik Potgieter, who founded the town of Andries Ohrigstad in 1845, first settled the district. 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 and went north, founding Schoemansdal. After another disastrous year at Ohrigstad the people who had stayed behind, move south to Lydenburg or “the town of suffering”, the 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 either relinquish 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 the 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 swear allegiance to its president Marthinus Wessel Pretorius.

Little 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 Riebeek at the Cape. Then in 1848 and 1851 respectively, the gold fields in California and Victoria 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 peace, took a firm stand against prospecting. However, restrictive edicts have seldom proved to be a barrier to progress, and various individuals began exploration. Gold was discovered 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, since the state retained 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 the 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 the first formal mining law was passed. It reserved the right to mine to the State, which would control mining through a commissioner and no foreigner could own a gold mine.

Numerous prospectors advised the Landdrost (Landdrost was the title of various officials with local jurisdiction – Dutch origin) at Lydenburg 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 and 1877, but most would have come from the Sabie/Graskop/Pilgrim’s sector, rather than from Ohrigstad/Lydenburg deposits.

The Transvaal Republic was on the verge of bankruptcy by 1877, and President Burgers retained only the most tenuous hold over his subjects. This crisis 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 (especially 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 such an uprising, the British had already stationed garrisons in the major Transvaal towns of Pretoria, Potchefstroom, Rustenburg and Lydenburg. The Transvaal war of 1880-1881 is best known for the ignominious defeat of the British at Mujaba in February 1881, which ended the battle.

After peace 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 each digger had in the past paid a small license fee to the government, the new arrangement was that the government awarded concessions to people who wished to begin mining operations. Companies that were better financed, and therefore able to maximise both the technical and financial aspects of mining, and therefor eventually replaced individual diggers.

The first part of the South African war was characterised by battles and sieges. Ladysmith, Mafeking, Paardekraal, Spionkop and Colenso are names that featured in some of the major events. When the British entered Pretoria, the capital of the enemy, in June 1900, they expected the yearlong 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 ensued. Guerilla warfare was prevalent all over the country, and some important action took place around Mount Anderson.

Around May 1900 British generals became aware that Lydenburg was being prepared for defense 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 General Sir Redvers Henry 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 southwest 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 to do 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 to almost reach the summit of the mountains. The Boers appeared to be and 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 their guns. Because of the narrow path, 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 155 mm Creusot Long Tom was a French field gun (artillery piece) manufactured by Schneider et Cie in Le Creusot, France and used by the Boers in the Second Boer War.