A venture into the hidden Spekboom Valley with Mpumalanga Heritage experiencing

To most of us, venturing into the Spekboom Valley with its breathtaking natural beauty and historical sites of gold diggings dating over nearly a century ago is a very exclusive affair.

You either have to own or be invited to one of the private trout lodges and syndicates or book yourself into either the Nooitgedacht Lodge or camping site or Mount High Luxury Country Estate to experience this pristine mountain scenery and excellent trout waters.

Recently, members of Mpumalanga Heritage were fortunate enough to be taken deep into the kloofs and crevices, crisscrossing the clear water of the upper Spekboom River and its contributors on a conducted tour to some of these old mining sites.

The excavations and ruins of gold mining activities and structures from the 1880s until late into the previous century, still dot this historic valley.

Retired Sappi senior manager Duncan Ballantyne, today both the chairperson of the Spekboom River Conservancy as well as Mpumalanga Heritage, compiled this historical timeline of the Spekboom area.

It also provides important historical documentation of the history of Lydenburg and its surroundings.

Timeline:

• 1845: The Voortrekkers establish the town of Ohrigstad.
• 1850: Due to the danger of malaria in the lower-lying areas, the Voortrekkers abandon Ohrigstad and move southwards to establish the town of Lydenburg.
• 1868: In May, the explorer and amateur geologist Karl Mauch embarked on a new trip up into Africa. His aims were to discover the “ruins with Egyptian antiquities” and he hoped to traverse Africa to the equator. He was joined by two companions, Paul Jebe and St Vincent Erskine. The latter left the party after a short while. Mauch came from Pretoria via Lydenburg at the end of June and found evidence of gold in the area. This news spread like wildfire.

• 1869: A party of prospectors arrived from Natal led by Edward Button, who was accompanied by George Parsons and James Sutherland. In Lydenburg, another prospector named Tom McLachlan joined them, as he knew the district. Button, Parsons and Sutherland focused on the Lydenburg area, having faith in Mauch’s opinions, and shortly after McLachlan joined them, they got their reward. In several of the streams beyond Lydenburg – the Spekboom River was certainly one – they found traces of gold. Gold was located in and along both sides of the Spekboom River on the farm Nooitgedacht, situated between Natalshoop and Finsbury.

• 1870: On December 21, 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. • 1873: Dr E Cohen produced a map “Route von nach den Goldfeldern und von Lydenburg nach der Delagoa Bai”, and clearly indicated on it was the Spekboomrivier north of Lydenburg at the point where the wagon route crossed it.
• 1873-1877: No record of the gold output during these years.
• 1877: The Transvaal was annexed on April 12, and Sir Theophilus Shepstone raised the Union Jack in Pretoria.
• • 1880: Dissatisfaction with the British 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 took place. After peace had been restored, the search for gold continued with the government encouraging mining operations.

• 1883: R Kelsey Loveday produced his “Map of the Lydenburg Goldfields”, which now showed the full extent of the Spekboom River Valley. Farm no 367 was indicated and this is Nooitgedacht, where much mining activity was to take place.
• 1896: The gold rush to the Spekboom River Valley was on, and by 1896, it had been fully surveyed and opened up to gold mining. Troye produced his “New Map of the Transvaal Colony. Sheet no VI, Lydenburg”. On this, it can be seen that the farm Natalshoop had been taken up by Transvaal Exploration, Lands and Mines, and the farms Nooitgedacht and Finsbury were being exploited by Transvaal Gold Mining Estates.

• 1899-1902: The Anglo-Boer War is fought. Prospecting and gold mining activity ceased.
• 1900s: After the Anglo-Boer War, despite an unpromising start, the Mount Anderson mining industry developed in the 20th century, and in 1914 the area was opened to prospecting and digging. The workings of the Nooitgedacht reef created a stir at the time (1914) and the farm was opened as a “public diggings” and called the Mount Anderson Goldfields. In October 1916, successful gold workings were reported in reefs some three or four miles down the Spekboom River. 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 Little Joker Mine was worked from 1933 to 1939.

• 1968: An attempt was made to mine the alluvium in the “Blougat” on Natalshoop farm. Mr Rossouw, the owner of the farm, led the operation. Evidently, he had made a lot of money from gold in the river in earlier times. A friend of mine was part of the crew. It was done in the winter months when the river flow was lowest and they attempted to pump the pool dry (after diverting as much water as possible down the irrigation canal) and then process the soils to search for gold. It turned out to be an unsuccessful venture, because it was realised that the site had been mined historically. Apparently, at the time there was a resident old-timer in the area by the name of Steenkamp who had been operating thereabouts for ages and knew the history of all the prospectors, diggers and gold mines in the valley. A river and valley at Finsbury are today named after him.
• 1974: The Little Joker Mine finally shut down its operations in 1974 and its equipment was sold to a Rhodesian company.

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