19 May 1986: Reconstructed Mining Town Evokes the Feel of Early Kimberley
May 24, Hillcrest
Community, Halfway House, north of Johannesburg
While in Kimberley this week, I was able to take a tour of the mining museum (on the site of the original diamond mine) as well as the present underground mining operations and the diamond recovery area.
Kimberley wasn’t the site of the first diamond mining in South Africa but the first discovery there was way back in 1871. It didn’t take long for a swarm of fortune seekers to descend on the area. The early finds were made by hundreds of individuals working small claims at the surface of an old volcanic vent ½ km across. As the diggings went deeper and deeper, excavation naturally became more difficult. The DeBeers Company under the aggressive leadership of tycoon and empire-builder, Cecil John Rhodes, was eventually able to buy out the small operators, consolidating the claims by the end of the 19th Century. After excavating a couple hundred meters from the surface, DeBeers decided to go underground. The shaft of the original underground Kimberley Mine eventually reached 1100 meters. Production ceased in August 1914 at the start of World War I. Between 1871 and 1914, 14,500,000 carats (2722kg) of diamonds had been recovered. The “Big Hole” is now adjacent to downtown Kimberley, and the mine museum is situated on the other side of the Big Hole next to the now abandoned shaft. The only way I could get a picture of most of this gigantic crater was by using my 20mm super-wide angle lens (I knew I lugged to Africa for something!)
The “Big Hole”, site of diamond mining at Kimberley from 1871
to 1914. In the background are buildings
in downtown Kimberley which give a feel for the enormity of this crater. It is more than 1500 feet wide and nearly 800
feet deep.
The reconstructed
mining town at the museum is quite impressive and captures the spirit of the
place. Organ music, triggered by an
electric eye starts to play when one enters the German Lutheran Church, built
in 1875. There is also music (old piano
and barroom melodies) in the Kimberley Bar.
A sign on the pawnbroker’s office reads, “When in trouble come to
Uncle.” Other buildings include Barney
Bornato’s Boxing Academy (circa 1878), a gentlemen’s outfitters, dry goods
store, shoe store with old shoe boxes on the shelves, tobacco shop, bottled
water factory, ballroom, the town’s oldest house from 1877 (everyone lived in
tents prior to then), and a precise replica of the original mine manager’s
house as well as several dozen other buildings and shops. The DeBeers directors’ Pullman coach, built
in 1899, is on display. It has a
luxurious dining room, bathtub and toilet.
All the buildings are beautifully furnished with genuine period
items. A transport hall has old autos,
trams, and a puffing Billy street car.
The museum also has two of the Southern Hemisphere’s first electric
street lights. I’m not generally all
that excited by museums unless they are exceptional, and this one certainly is.
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