Kruger National Park History - South Africa By Gerald Crawford Stellenbosch At Isnare.com Ezine Articles

The Kruger National Park in South Africa has a rich and colorful history including the San people, Voortrekkers and various gold prospectors.

The first explorer to set foot in the region was the Dutchman François de Cuiper who led a Dutch East India Company expedition to explore. However, the expedition was attacked and driven by local tribes-people near Gomondwane. Only around 1838 Voortrekker expeditions led by Lous Trichardt and Hans van Rensburg were able to successfully establish forward outposts.

Hundreds of Europeans and farmers came to the Lowveld lured by rumors of gold and the great quantity of valuable commodities such as ivory and skins. This caused the number of game to dramatically decrease due to hunting and trading of animal skins and horns.

President Paul Kruger was told about the rapid destruction of wildlife in the area by hunters, after which he succeeded to persuade the Transvaal parliament to establish a protected area for the wildlife in the Lowveld region.

The "Sabie Game Reserve" , bordered by the Crocodile River in the south, the Sabie River in the north, the Lebombo Mountains in the east and the Drakensberg Mountains in the west, which is now the southern part of the Kruger National Park, was established in 1898. These reserves would eventually expand into today's Kruger National Park.

The Anglo-Boer War stopped any further development of the reserve, but the British, after winning the war, proceeded with the plan to develop the Sabie Game Reserve and gave the task to major James Stevenson-Hamilton in 1902 to protect the animals against hunters, ivory poachers and cattle farmers. The Park was opened to the public in 1927 for visitors to view animals and plant life in a area where they are protected.

After the Anglo-Boer War, James Stevenson-Hamilton was appointed as the first park warden. He spent the next 40 years protecting what the war had destroyed. His actions are no doubt an ever-living contribution to the Kruger National Park's current existence.

In addition to his animal conservation, James Stevenson Hamilton was also responsible for acquiring another 10 000 hex acres for the reserve. After World War I, the Kruger National Park was protected by the government of South Africa and remains under the watchful eye of the government even today.

The very first ranger in the reserve was Paul Bester who made his residence in a rustic rondavels (hut) which is now the site of the headquarters camp, Skukuza. Documents concerning the History of the Kruger National Park can be viewed at the Skukuza Library.

Half a million years ago, the first San stone age hunters roamed the plains in search of game. The modern day bush men have left fascinating rock paintings all over the Republic of South Africa, and, Kruger National Park contains over one hundred sites of these paintings.

The Kruger National Park is a living memorial to President Paul Kruger and those who have upheld his vision of a protected wilderness reserve which will forever remind us of that which we are so dangerously close to loosing.

The First Park Warden:

James Stevenson Hamilton was born into an affluent Scottish family in 1867, he opted for military service in Africa. After the Anglo-Boer War, his intense interest in Africa caused him to accept the first post of Park Ranger.

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