GC23E15 2010 New Years Bash Cache #2 The River (Multi-cache) in Gauteng, South Africa created by Happy Hunters SA

This cache has been archived.

ROTSIP: No response from owner.
This cache appears to be gone, and it seems unlikely that it will be replaced soon, so I'm archiving it.
If you wish to repair/replace the cache sometime in the future, just contact us (by email, quoting the GC number), and assuming it meets the current guidelines, we'll be happy to unarchive it.
Thanks for the past fun.

GC23E15 ▼

A cache by Happy Hunters SA Message this owner

Hidden : 1/28/2010

Difficulty:

Terrain:

Size: Size: small (small)

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Geocache Description:

This is one in a series of caches placed for the 2010 New Years Bash. This is one of the last bits of open space in this area. With all the development, who knows how long this little hill will be vacant!

At the first waypoint you will find the coordinates for the final.

This cache is located in Strubens Valley and along the Wilgespruit.And all 3 cahes in this series can be done in about a hour.

The adjoining farms Sterkfontein and Wilgespruit in what is now Roodepoort where Roodepoort got its name.

And here is some History about the area.

Many of the pioneers of the South African interior suspected that there was gold here somewhere - it had, after all, been found a few hundred kilometres to the east, in Barberton. Some prospectors spent years buying up land, digging and panning, finding tell-tale yellow traces, but nothing substantial. In 1882, Siegmund Hammerschlag, whose farm Tweefontein lay where Krugersdorp is today, erected the first ore-crushing machinery, a two-stamp battery.

The first to strike gold were the Struben brothers, Fred and Harry, who owned parts of the adjoining farms Sterkfontein and Wilgespruit in what is now Roodepoort.

The Struben family had immigrated to South Africa from Germany around 1840. In 1856, Harry bought his first span of oxen and became a transport rider between Durban and Pretoria. In 1862 he bought a farm in Pretoria, where he settled, with his wife and seven children. Fred also moved to Pretoria, where he worked as an assistant to Harry.

The two brothers joined the rush to Kimberley, when diamonds were discovered there in 1871, but returned shortly afterwards when Fred's health suffered. In 1882 Fred tried his luck again at Barberton in what is today Mpumalanga, where a rich but short-lived gold reef had been discovered. He returned to his brother's farm, which was close to ruin after a hailstorm destroyed his crops.

Almost broke, the brothers considered emigrating to New Zealand, but a chance visit changed their minds. Knowing that Fred had a reputation for expertise in geology, neighbouring farmer Louw Geldenhuys arrived to ask for an opinion of the rocks on his farm Wilgespruit, which covered part of what is today the western flank of Johannesburg.

Geldenhuys had also been in Barberton, and he believed the rocks on his farm were similar to the gold-bearing rocks he had seen in Barberton. The two men rode over to Wilgespruit and looked at the rocks, and Fred became convinced that the area was indeed gold-bearing.

Fred made the astute observation that many of the pebbles appeared water-worn, which indicated that at some point in the distant past, "the whole area must have been submerged", resulting in the accumulation of layers of sediment and "conglomerate beds … which might possibly carry gold as in other parts of the world".