The History

Early beginnings
People have lived, farmed and traded in the Kruger as far back as one and a half million years ago. The earliest inhabitants were known as Homo erectus. These ancient humans lived with and hunted animals such as the short-necked giraffe and the mammoth. The Kruger is host to the bones and skeletons of their prehistoric lives, as well as the stone tools they left for us to examine and study.

About Us 40 000 thousand years ago (the late stone age) Homo sapiens learnt to develop and work with more efficient tools and weapons. Hunter-gathers, now more refined than their predecessors, leapt into the limelight by inventing specific tools for specific functions like fish hooks for fishing, the bow and arrow, and vessels for carrying water and food.

These "inventions" were not overnight inspirations but rather evolved over 30 000 years of trial and error. These people, the inventors, were called The San – and their inventions allowed them to find time to paint – and they became great painters, leaving long-lasting records of life painted on rock walls and in caves in the Kruger Park. The paintings give us insight to their spiritual beliefs and practices. There are about 150 San engraving and painting sites in the Kruger Park.

Farming in the park
Hunting and gathering can be hard work, especially when your food can walk away, or the fruit bearing plants and trees wilt and die in the dry seasons. Farming became evident in the park as early as 200AD and although the San and the more technologically advanced immigrants from north of the park lived together for hundreds of years – farming became a good option.

Domestic animals and self-grown crops came with these Bantu-speaking immigrants as to the secrets of metalwork.

But nature sees quickly to people engrossed in their own pastimes, and again see saw to it that crops would fail and cattle would starve during a particularly bad drought sometime between 800 and 1 600 AD.

The first traders
Trading exotic goods like "White Gold", in the shape of elephant tusks, Yellow Gold – the precious metal that kinks from far away places wanted and later, "Black Gold" in the shape of slaves, were soon seen by the human residents of the park as an economic viability.

In 1725 the first European encountered the park. He didn’t last long, and was chased back over the Lebombo Mountains. The park remained a mystery to Europeans for another 100 years until Joao Albasini, a Portuguese trader arrived to make his mark. He established trade links between the inland traders and Delagoa Bay (Maputo, Mozambique).

The Voortrekkers were trying to uncover the old trade routes to the east coast – Lang Hans Van Rensberg disappeared trying, and Louis Trichardt set out after him to open the route. Albasini was there to meet the survivors – and there weren’t many – Trichardt, his wife and most of his people died of Malaria and or other diseases during their trek.

Gold mining
Gold was discovered in 1873 in the Lowveld. The route to the east coast became imperative, machinery and supplies needed to get to the miners. The ‘road’ was established by a Hungarian man named Alois Nellmapius. The famous Percy Fitzpartick used this route, and the tales of his and his Staffordshire Terrier, Jock’s adventures are recorded in many books and memorials.

Gold attracted many criminals and hunters. These guys headed for the famous ‘crooks corner’ – the place of crooks, bordering three countries, South Africa, Mozambique and Zimbabwe. The criminals used to hop into another country when they were being chased by the law.

Protected area
In 1898 President Paul Kruger proclaimed the area between the Crocodile and Sabie rivers as a protected area – not that the hunters, fortune-seekers and politicians worried too much – they were too busy fighting the Anglo-Boer war. On 26 March 1898 the Goevermentwildtuin (Government game reserve) between the Sabie and Crocodile rivers was proclaimed a wildlife reserve. This was the nucleus from which grew today’s Kruger National Park.

The British won the war but thankfully reproclaimed the area, and then set about clearing the way for the protected area. Major James Stevenson-Hamilton was appointed to the job of ‘head ranger’ by the British Government’s newly appointed Commissioner for Native Affairs, Sir Godfrey Lagden. Sir Godfrey told Stevenson-Hamilton to "go down there and make yourself thoroughly disagreeable to everyone."

First rangers
Stevenson-Hamilton soon realised that people and animals could not live together while animals were a food source for people. He appointed captain "Gaza" Gray as his first ranger, and together the two of them began moving indigenous people out of the Sabie Reserve.

Stevenson-Hamilton set up base at Sabie Bridge – today called Skukuza. Skukuza was named after Stevenson-Hamilton. It means "he who sweeps clean" and refers to the way Stevenson-Hamilton swept the local inhabitants from their homes and moved them back into their former areas.

The next appointed ranger was Harry Christopher Wolhuter, who was to become one of the most famous rangers of the Kruger National Park. Stevenson-Hamilton and Wolhuter gave the colonial authorities motivation to "grow" President Kruger’s vision, and they proclaimed another large area of land called the Shingwedzi. This area lay between the Letaba and Limpopo rivers and consisted mostly of thick Mopane forest and savanna. Basically this move caused an enormous problem for Stevenson-Hamilton because the area between the larger Shingwedzi and the Sabie reserves, between the Olifants and Letaba rivers was proclaimed a mining area.

Wolhuter was attacked by lions in 1903, and the story of how he killed one of the lions with a small six inch pocket knife is a remarkable tale of the courage and passion these early rangers needed in order to keep President Kruger’s vision alive.

Major "Gaza" Gray was appointed as the warden for the Shingwedzi reserve, and in 1917 when Stevenson-Hamilton left to fight in the First World War, Gray was appointed acting warden for the whole area.

Tourism begins
The Selati railway line, a railway line built initially to connect the Lowveld gold mines to Mozambique, is an important factor in the development of the Kruger National Park as a wildlife reserve. The railway line made the area accessible for people to enter and view wildlife.

The goldfields were not very active, and in order to make the line more profitable a 8/9 day tour through the Lowveld and Mozambique was introduced. A stop over at Sabie Bridge for guests to listen to the sounds of the night while camped around an open fire became the most popular part of the trip.

The fact that people were paying money to view wildlife initiated the way forward. In 1926 the two reserves were joined and the boundaries for what is now the Kruger National Park were set. Piet Grobbler, the lands minister at the time proclaimed the reserve the Kruger National Park after President Kruger’s vision.

By 1927 the first car entered the park for the princely some of one pound. By 1930 750 cars arrived at the park, and today the Kruger National Park hosts about one million visitors a year.