page_title: Witwatersrand
section_title: History
hierarchical_section_title: Witwatersrand / History
caption_attribution_description: English: Street Entrance to George Harrison Park This media shows a South African Protected Site with SAHRA file reference 9/2/228/0196.
context_page_description: The Witwatersrand is a 56-kilometre-long, north-facing scarp in South Africa. It consists of a hard, erosion-resistant quartzite metamorphic rock, over which several north-flowing rivers form waterfalls, which account for the name Witwatersrand, meaning "ridge of white waters" in Afrikaans. This east-west-running scarp can be traced with only one short gap, from Bedfordview in the east, through Johannesburg and Roodepoort, to Krugersdorp in the west.
  The scarp forms the northern edge of a 7-to-10-kilometre-wide plateau which rises about 200 m above the surrounding plains of the Highveld. A number of picturesque Johannesburg Suburbs, including Observatory, Linksfield Ridge and Upper Houghton are located on the ridge, overlooking the northern parts of Johannesburg. The entire plateau-like structure is also often called the Witwatersrand. The plateau's elevation above sea-level is between 1700 and 1800 metres.
  The Witwatersrand plateau forms a continental divide, with the run-off to the north draining into the Indian Ocean via the Crocodile and Limpopo rivers, while the run-off to the south drains via the Vaal into the Orange River and ultimately into the Atlantic Ocean.
context_section_description: Although gold had been discovered in various locations in South Africa, such as Barberton and Pilgrim's Rest, as well as at several sites near the Witwatersrand, these were alluvial concentrates in contemporary rivers, or in quartz veins, in the form that gold had always been found elsewhere on earth. When George Harrison, probably accompanied by George Walker, found gold on the farm Langlaagte, 5 km (3 mi) west of what would become the city of Johannesburg, in an outcrop of conglomerate rocks, in February 1886, they assumed that this was alluvial gold in an old riverbed, that had been tilted as a result of earth movements. However, when it was found that, traced downdip, the conglomerate was not merely developed for the narrow width of a river, but continued in depth, there came the realisation that this conglomeratic zone was part of a sedimentary succession. Harrison had stumbled on the Main Reef conglomerate (part of the “Johannesburg Subgroup” of rocks — see illustration above). The conglomerate was quickly traced east and westward for a total continuous distance of 50 km (31 mi) to define what became known as the “Central Rand Gold Field”.
  Harrison declared his claim with the then-government of the Zuid Afrikaanse Republiek (ZAR), and in September 1886 President Paul Kruger issued a proclamation declaring nine farms public mining diggings, starting on 20 September 1886. This heralded the historic Witwatersrand Gold Rush. Harrison is believed to have sold his claim for less than £10 before leaving the area, and he was never heard from again.
  Harrison's original Zoekers' (in English: seekers', or prospectors') Claim No 19 was declared a national monument in 1944, and named Harrison's Park. The park is on the busy Main Reef Road, immediately west of Nasrec Road.
  In 1887 Cecil John Rhodes registered “The Gold Fields of South Africa” in London, South Africa's first mining house, with a capital of £250000. His brother Thomas was the first chairman.
caption: The street entrance of George Harrison Park
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