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Summary
Mining
in the Lowveld region dates back many centuries ago when unknown
miners worked quartz reefs in the area for gold. Evidence of these
diggings is still found in the region.
The
history of this
small beautiful village dates back to 1873 when a miner, Alex Patterson, discovered alluvial gold
on a farm called Ponieskrantz. Though the discovery was
kept as a secret , the inevitable happened when a second prospector William
Trafford also discovered gold on an adjacent site. On 22nd
September 1873 Pilgrim’s Rest was officially proclaimed a gold field.
The
business began to flourish when David Benjamin a financier from London purchased
the mining rights for his company Transvaal Gold Mining Estates ltd. With the
turn of the century this village proved to be a fortune with gold, even at the
depression times. By 1940 mining had all but ceased as the reserves became
exhausted and in 1971 the last mine was closed.
However
the valley was fortunate enough to have a fascinating period in the history of
gold mining in South Africa. Pilgrim's Rest was purchased by the provincial government in 1974, ensuring its preservation as a cultural asset. The village, together with the farm on which it is situated,
Ponieskrantz, were declared National Monuments in 1986.
Today many of the original buildings have been
restored to create a living museum, including places such as the Royal Hotel, St. Mary’s Anglican Church,
and Joubert bridge.
There
are excellent trout-fishing, hiking and mountain biking venues in the area. A number of
prime hotels and timeshare establishments offer pleasant and excellent
accommodation in the surrounding hills.
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Stream
of Gold
In
1878 John Swan found gold. It was no secret, for he began paying for his stores
and drinks with nuggets. But he refused to tell where his mine lay. the only
certainty was that it was in a dry area, for Swan began to dig a watercourse, or
'race', to direct a stream to his find.
Swan's
Race became one of the unnatural wonders of Southern Africa. For five years he
worked it employing other men and paying them with gold dust or nuggets. There
was tremendous speculation as to where the race would end, for that would be the
site of Swan's discovery.
Then
a company suddenly secured rights to land across the line of Swan's Race. With
his labours blocked, Swan was offered a deal; if he revealed the site of his
find the company would work it and give him a 20 per cent interest.
Angrily,
Swan went off to prospect in the De Kaap Valley, where he died of fever.
His mine has never been found. The
course of the race may still be followed for many kilometres; it ends abruptly,
and from this point many fortune-seekers have attempted to trace Swan's route -
but to no avail. Swan's
last words as he lay dying are reputed to have been: 'Its good, but it's deep
and well hid. They'll never find it.' They
never have.
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More History
Alec
Patterson, known as Wheelbarrow Alec because he carried his belongings in a
wheelbarrow, trundled into a deep valley on the western side of the edge of the
Berg in 1873. He prospected the stream, and found gold in middle reaches.
Another prospector, William Trafford, joined him and name the place Pilgrim's
Rest, because to him is seemed he had found his El Dorado.
There
was a frantic rush to the area as soon as news spread of the discovery. Various
earlier discoveries along the escarpment, such as at Mac-Mac and Spitskop, had
caused minor rushes, but the gold from Pilgrim's Creek was the richest alluvial
deposit found at the time in southern Africa, and it lured fortune-seekers from
all over the world. Many renowned characters came to Pilgrim's Rest from the
Australian and Californian gold fields.
The
diggers liked Pilgrim's Rest; it was healthy, cool and pleasant, and although
the middle reaches if the stream produced the richest finds, there was gold all
along it's course. Many fine nuggets were recovered, and the men worked hard,
rooting up the entire length of the stream. Claims were about 50 meters square.
To work them, a digger had to clear away the topsoil, which in some places was
as much as 6 meters deep and littered with large boulders. All this had to be
carried away in buckets and wheelbarrows before the underlying gravel was
exposed, beneath which, against the bedrock, was the gold.
Running
water was essential for the recovery of this gold. The entire flow of the stream
was soon used up by diggers in the upper reaches, and only a turgid flow of mud
reached the lower portion of the valley. To overcome this problem a number of
speculators devised ingenious irrigation schemes.
They
located streams higher up on the mountain slopes and built water courses ( known
as 'races') to direct this water, sometimes for several kilometres, to any claim
whose owner had means to pay.
Once
water was available the digger would construct a sluice box from 3 to 7 meters
long and slightly less than a meter wide. Slats of wood or slivers of rock were
fixed across the floor of this box to make what was called a Venetian Ripple.
The gravel from the claim was then steadily fed into the water directed into the
sluice box. The heavy gold would sink to the bottom and be trapped by the
ripples. To trap very fine gold, coarse blankets would be laid in the sluice box
and the fibres would retain the specks of gold. A proportion of the gold would
escape the trap and was borne on with the water, which then entered a small dam.
The last of the gold would be deposited in the mud at the bottom of this dam.
From time to time the claim-holder panned the mud and recovered the residual
gold.
c
During
1874 the rush to Pilgrim's Rest was at its peak. Traders and bar keepers
arrived; an Irishman, M. V. Phelan, started a newspaper, the Gold News, later
renamed The Gold Fields Mercury; and a hard-drinking Anglican clergyman, the
Reverend St. Charles Frederick Cawkill Barker, set up a school and church in a
tent, and later in a shack. Women also
arrived, most of them hard-working wives who joined their men on the fields.
Some women worked their own claims.
Several
other discoveries were made in the vicinity of Pilgrim's rest. Waterfall Gully
and peach Tree Creek were the scenes of rushes and every tributary stream of
Pilgrim's Creek was prospected and worked. Early in July 1975 G Russell and his
partner S. Lilley found a nugget 6038 grams in mass. The largest found in the
creek up to that time, it was called the Reward Nugget. About £200 000 of
gold was recovered from Pilgrim's Creek in 1875 - at current gold values this
would amount to much more than R 1 million.
In
1876 productivity began to decline. The gravels were steadily worked out.
Several companies were formed to mine deeper levels and explore the leaders and
reefs from which the gold had originally been eroded. The idea of working for a
company did not appeal to the diggers - they wanted the freedom of owning their
own claims. There was an exodus from Pilgrim's Rest, especially when news came
of gold discoveries elsewhere. The companies that remained in Pilgrim's Rest,
however, produced good gold.
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Historical places of interest
Diggings Site
Museum
Pilgrim's rest was the site of the first gold rush in South Africa. Diggers from many parts of the world came seeking their fortunes here. Life for the diggers was hard. They worked long hours, and save for a lucky few, received very little compensation. Most spent what they did make in the canteens. There were no proper medical facilities - a large tent served as a hospital and was administered by volunteer diggers. The journey to Pilgrims rest through the Lowveld took its toll on many of the would-be diggers and many arrived suffering badly from malaria, dysentery, exposure and various other diseases. By 1875 tent houses were being replaced by more sturdy wattle shanties. The wealthier inhabitants built timber and corrugated iron houses. The community ensured that the lawlessness and violence,
customary to similar establishments elsewhere in the world, were controlled by means of a court system, where a diggers committee would punish transgressors. Criminals were sent to jail (a tent in which the convicted person was placed in stocks) or banishment from the town.
The Reduction Work Museum
The increasing production of ore made it necessary to establish a reduction works in this town. The first buildings - a stamp mill, a smelting house, and office buildings, were erected in 1897. An electric tramline was
laid to transport ore from the mines to this reduction works. These development of the reduction works and tramline were considered as major technical feats at the time. The reduction works was expanded in 1914 to
accommodate increased levels of gold production, and continued to run until 1972 when the last mine closed down. The works was restored in 1974, and opened up as a museum to the public.
The reduction works is credited with leading to the establishment of the Belvedere Hydroelectric power station. Built near Bourkes Luck in 1911, it was the largest hydroelectric power station in the southern hemisphere, and Pilgrim's Rest became the second town in South Africa, after Kimberly, to be electrified.
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