Muldersdrift is where it all started and Shenan Cochrane, who wrote the book The History of Mulder’s Drift 1850–2015 explained that the Mulders were not the first to settle there.

In the book she published in 2016 she explained that the 17-year-old Christoffel Gerhardus Snyman came to the area in approximately 1847 and settled on the farm Rietvallei.

‘Ou Buffel’, as he was known, and his wife Catherina Frederika Sophia came from the Cape and after settling in he left her there and went ivory hunting.

Shenan said there is a possibility that Snyman discovered the Victoria Falls before Livingston. Snyman wrote his wife a letter telling her about these massive waterfalls he found and they sounded like they were roaring and thundering.

Because Catherina loved to garden, Christoffel bought her two gifts when he returned. The first was a mulberry tree and the second a Zimbabwe creeper bush, which still stands today. He also donated the land for the first Muldersdrift Primary School, where his son-in-law was the headmaster and his daughters were teachers.

The Mulders arrived 30 years after Snyman and were on their way to what is known today as Hekpoort. But whenever it rained no one was able to get through the drift. The Mulders then had to set up camp and wait for the water levels to drop, but eventually decided to stay. They rented the farm Driefontein from Snyman and eventually bought it.

“People used to say go to the drift where the Mulders lived,” Shenan explained and that is how the name Muldersdrift came about. Eventually Arthur Ballantine Edgson asked Snyman if he would sell him a few morgen of land.

He built a general store at the top of the drift for campers to enjoy a hot meal and a drink. He built the hotel after the Second Boer War, and both the shop and the hotel still stand today.

There were two official asbestos mines in Muldersdrift. They were West Rand Asbestos and Scotts Mine and were started in 1932. The mines provided job opportunities to hundreds of people in Muldersdrift.

But it was not all work; there was play as well. There used to be popular motor races up the Krugersdorp Hill and people would come out to watch drivers from around the world participate in the race.

There was also the Muldersdrift Walk once a year which was started in the 1890s. People would walk, not run, from Krugersdorp down the hill to where the race ended at the Muldersdrift Hotel where a huge party used to be hosted for all the participants.

The next day they would take their wagons back up the hill.

The first Harikrishna temple was also built in Muldersdrift, and over the years many movies have been shot in Muldersdrift. One of the big historical events was when one of the downhill lanes of the road washed away and collapsed. Shenan explained that the Muldersdrift community has always helped each other when there was need – and still does.

Click here for more photos [https://www.citizen.co.za/krugersdorp-news/442586/from-the-mulders-in-the-drift-to-a-thriving-community/].