Today, Leydsdorp has the dusty look of an abandoned settlement reverting to bushveld, but it enjoyed a brief period of fame when gold was discovered in the Murchison Range in the late 1880s. This discovery sparked a gold rush to what was then the Zuid Afrikaanse Republiek (or ZAR: the South African Republic, the independent Boer state that later became the Transvaal province in the Union of South Africa).
The discovery attracted prospectors from all over the world: people with names like Paraffin Joe, Mica Bill, Brandy Smith, and the Heavenly Twins; miners who had been in Alaska for the Klondike strike and in Australia for Kalgoorlie.
They gave their claims fanciful names like the Blue Jacket, the Antelope, the Old Birthday, or the Flying Dutchman, and at its peak the town boasted a population of 3,000 rough-and-tumble types who needed 8 bars to keep their pipes wet.
By 1890, a "little town with a big cemetery" had sprung up. The name was a nod to Willem Johannes Leyds, who was the ZAR's Secretary of State at the time. The dreaded Blackwater Fever (a vicious strain of malaria) was the main reason for the size of the cemetery, while barroom brawls or hungry lions also contributed to high mortality rates.
2000+ year old baobab. You have to be quiet in the presence of greatness. The mere thought that this tree could have been here as early as 1 A.D. is enough to take your breath away. You can hug this tree, and you should, or you can take the wooden ladder and climb to the top and become part of that silence for a while. Most people love to destroy irreplaceable things. It is a sobering feeling to sit in this tree and just appreciate its ancient existence. You should do it.
Over the years, the Leydsdorp Baobab has been used as a post office, mortuary, bar, refrigerator, kitchen and makeshift home. Naturally hollow inside, most baobabs have a comfortable, constant interior temperature of 22 degrees Celsius.
South Africa
