George William
Stow Monument
The
geologist, George William Stow, discovered coal deposits in the bed
of the Vaal River in 1878.
Sammy Marks realised the importance of Stow’s coal discovery
as the Kimberley diamond rush had led to a shortage of fuel to
power their mining operations.
He employed Stow to purchase all the farms in the area which were
considered coal bearing as he believed he could transport coal from
Vereeniging to Kimberley by floating it down-river by a series of
weirs to his diamond claims.
This as it turned out was impractical and he had to resort to using
ox-wagons as a method of transport instead.
Marks & Lewis who at that time owned a quarter of all the
Kimberley diamond claims sold most of their Kimberley claims to
concentrate on the coal finds through their newly formed mining
company, the Zuid-Afrikaansche en Oranje Vrystaatsche Mineralen en
Mijnbouvereeniging (later to become the Vereeniging Estates
Limited).
In 1892, the small village of Vereeniging was formally established,
although it was another seven years before the State Secretary
signed the final document which led to the founding of the
town.
Vaal Triangle
History
Sadly the monument is now
long gone, only the foundation remains where the memorial once
stood.
The dirt road leading to the cache is quite rough and will
require
a vehicle with high ground clearance.
The cache is a camouflaged Pet Preform which contains a log sheet
and pencil.
There is no need to overturn any bricks or stones to find the
cache.
Enjoy the hunt.