Pilgrim’s Rest is a small museum town situated along the R533 Regional Route in the Mpumalanga province of South Africa. The town is protected as a provincial heritage site.
The town was the second of the Transvaal gold fields, attracting a rush of prospectors in 1873, soon after the MacMac diggings started some 5 km away.
Pilgrim’s Rest is part of the Thaba Chweu Local Municipality under the Ehlanzeni District Municipality in Mpumalanga province.
History
The alluvial gold was discovered by prospector Alec Patterson. He panned Pilgrim’s Creek, as it became known, when the nearby MacMac diggings became too crowded. He kept his find a secret, but a gold rush resulted when fellow prospector William Trafford registered his claim with the Gold Commissioner at MacMac. After it was officially declared a gold field in September 1873, the town suddenly grew to 1,500 inhabitants searching for alluvial gold.
Sadly, for the most part, the gold that was found was alluvial (gold dust) and did not reap the fortune that many were working hard to make. Occasionally a nugget of gold was discovered and though these were few and far between the largest recorded nugget weight a substantial 214 ounces. Stories were spread that alleged nuggets found were as heavy as 25 lbs but are unconfirmed.
By the 1880’s most of the prospectors had moved on to pursue their dreams of discovering a fortune in gold elsewhere, and the mining companies moved in with their modern equipment that could dig down deeper for the gold and extract it much quicker than any mere man could. As demand for the gold rose it became obvious to the mining companies that the only way they could increase production effectively was to use electricity, and so two small hydro-electric power stations were built. Soon these became unable to provide the amount of electricity needed so the 2000kW Belvedere station was built in 1911.
The Pilgrim’s Rest mines had their most productive years in 1913/14, with an estimated 112000 ounces being mined each year. While that amount seems small in comparison to what could be mined today it was significant for the time, given the equipment and knowledge available, and is a testament to the ingenuity and determination of the mining companies to extract as much gold as they possibly could.
Boer war
During the Second Boer War (11 October 1899 – 31 May 1902) the town of Pilgrim’s Rest was the location of a mint that was erected under emergency circumstances and the gold mined was used to make what is now the famous and extremely rare Veld Pond coins. Anyone who is in possession or acquires one has the good fortune to not only have a valuable coin but also an integral part of South Africa’s gold mining history.
Recent times and tourism
Mining was closed down in 1971 and the village was sold to the government as a national museum.
The town’s original architecture remains largely unchanged since the heyday of the mining era, because the town was declared a National Monument. It became a provincial heritage site in 1986.
Today the town is a tourist location that takes visitors back in time to the days of the gold rush in the 1870’s.
The village is a cultural heritage site and living museum with a variety of village museums, tours, accommodation, restaurants and shops.
It is said that there is still gold in the ground which is exciting for visitors to contemplate as they stand on the very site where 150 years earlier men, women and children were frantically digging and panning for the elusive solid nuggets that would make them instantly rich beyond their wildest dreams. The scars of the frantic digging for gold by many prospectors are still obvious despite the passage of time, and are just a part of what makes the town unique and interesting.
