The Hartbeespoort Dam Construction wasn’t all plain sailing

We thought you might like to know a bit more about the history of Hartbeespoort Dam.  The beautiful valley in which the dam was built is flanked by the Witwatersberg and Magaliesberg mountains. In 1898, forward thinking landowner Hendrik Schoeman built a stone and concrete wall, damming the Crocodile river at Witwaterspoort. He named the dam after his wife Sophia and spent a small fortune in the day, the princely sum of £10 000.00 building it. At the time to dam was the biggest in the Southern Hemisphere, but unfortunately for Schoeman, a mistake by his engineers led to dam to collapse in heavy rain fall and the structur was washed away.

It was only in 1906 that another feasibility study was undertaken, and in 1909 test hold were drilled to make sure that the ground rock suitable for building such a huge dam. There were many fits and starts in the construction of the dam over the next decade, with work interrupted by the 1^st World War, and legal cases that led to the bankruptcy of the original construction company. Nothing much happened until 1920, when work began in earnest on the project, but once again it was beset by disaster. Upriver temporary structures holding back the Crocodile river collapsed during the floods in March 1921, the original engineer on the project admitted defeat and quit.

A young engineer was then appointed, and he changed the design of the dam wall to an arch design. Upriver the holding dams were rebuilt, and the river tamed so that construction could begin. The dam was completed in April 1923 and the new road over the dam wall was completed in the September, thise road is still used today and takes you through the 56,5m tunnel into the town of Schoemansville.

This year the Hartbeespoort Dam celebrates its 97^th birthday and to celebrate we though we would share a few facts about the dam.

• The Magaliesberg Mountain range is the oldest mountain range in the world
• Schoemansville, the town located on the banks of the Dam is name after General Hendrik Schoeman, the landowner that owned most of the farmland the dam now covers.
• The young engineer F.W Scott who designed the dam wall has a street in Schoemansville named after him.
• Hartbeespoort was the name of Hendrik Schoeman’s farm and is where the dam got its name.
• Hartbeespoort Dam supplies water to neighbouring farms through 544km’s of canals
• Hartbeespoort Dam has its own NSRI [National Sea Rescue Institute] and is one of only three inland bases in South Africa.
• Hartbeespoort Dam is the only dam in South Africa to use the arch designed dam wall.
• The dam wall is 149.5m long and 54,9m high
• The deepest part of the dam is 45,1m and the average depth is 9,6m
• The surface area of the dam is 2062,8 hectares
• When it’s full the dam has 195,000,000 m3 of water in it

We can’t wait to see you all aboard Danny Buoy to cruise the famous Hartbeespoort Dam with us. We host daily cruises on Hartbeespoort Dam. Cruise with us, our midmorning, lunchtime and sundowner cruises are ideal for the family, couples and groups celebrating special occasions.

Our cruises include a welcome drink and finger foods, and a cash bar is available.