Schoemansdal is a conservation area at the foot of the Soutpansberg mountain range in Limpopo, around an historical site about 20 km west of Louis Trichardt, where a frontier town once stood…
The little frontier town of Schoemansdal was established by the Voortrekkers in the 1800’s as trading post – primarily for a then roaring trade in ivory, animal skins, horns, wood and salt, but was abandoned only 30 years after its establishment, after a massacre attack by Venda warriors that all but destroyed the town. What was left was never re-inhabited, and fell over time to the tearing fingers of nature – complete with Voortrekker household items, farm implements, irrigation systems, roads and graves…all left to be found in the 20th century.
What was left of the town was partly restored of late, and ‘Schoemansdal’ became an open air museum and National Monument that commemorated not only the pioneers who first established the town, but also the cultural heritage of the Schoemansdal area. Sadly, the main building of the museum and the info centre (along with some, but luckily not all) irreplaceable historical items burnt down in the winter of 2008.
The Limpopo Government is currently trying to raise the R28 million required to rebuild it.
There are a number of smallholdings in the Schoemansdal area and the Happy Rest Nature Reserve and Schoemansdal Environmental Education Centre are located just north of the place where the’ town’ once stood.
Getting there: Take the R522 west from Louis Trichardt.
