Very few people have heard of the first borehole sunk in an effort to prove that there were payable deposits of gold in the Free State. This is its story.
Soon after the major discoveries of the Witwatersrand and its expansion east and west the search went further out into the Free State in the hope of finding the continuation of the reefs. Already in the 1890s there was speculative buying of farms to the south of Klerksdorp over the Vaal.
One of the early prospectors to venture far down into the Free State was Archibald Megson. He noticed an outcrop near the present day Allanridge on the farm Aandenk which looked very similar to the ones of the Witwatersrand. Geological wisdom at that time told him to dig here and he started to dig an exploration shaft down 100 feet (30m). On the way down he found some gold, not enough to start a mine, but enough to make him carry on until he ran out of money. In good old prospectors fashion he placed all remaining dynamite at the bottom of his shaft to stop other people from interfering with 'his' dig.
Exploration shaft (The Gold Miners)
And onto the next chapter of the story of the borehole. In Johannesburg there were two young men, both...
