Loskop Dam - Early local engineering ingenuity

Abstract

Water History The history of the Loskop Dam can be traced back to the 1840s when the Voortrekkers settled in the Kruis River valley not far from the present dam site. The first farms in the Olifants River valley, including Lagersdrift and Kalkfontein, were pegged out as long ago as 1886. Back then, the farmers cultivated mainly wheat under dry-land conditions. Notwithstanding the establishment of these farms, due to malaria and cattle diseases like East Coast fever, initial development was slow until the turn of the nineteenth century. In the early twentieth century, many farmers trekked with their cattle from the Highveld to the Olifants River valley during the winter.

Authors

Categories