An aardvark turns up the FIRST gold nugget on Spreeuwfontein - twenty years before the rush

August 1871 · local · Prince Albert

2½ oz, round, water-worn and encrusted with crystals, in the spoil of a burrow on Lodewyk Bothma's farm 50 km from Prince Albert. Young Bothma took it for a sheep dropping, kicked it aside, then pocketed it as a pretty stone for his mother; she thought it "queer" and it ended up on a cupboard. Sir Richard Southey, the Cape Colonial Secretary, ordered an investigation and Atherstone, Thomas Bain and Dr E.J. Dunn went to look - by which time Bothma had sold the nugget to Samuel "Saamie" Luttig for £5.50. NOTHING FURTHER WAS FOUND FOR TWENTY YEARS. | [1 Aug 2026] Confirmed against two independent published accounts, which agree on August 1871, the aardvark, the 2½ oz and the twenty-year silence.

Who is on record here

• 1802 Lodewyk Bothma

Everyone the record names at this occasion. Who stood together is the clearest surviving evidence of which families were close to which, if you know of others who were here, this is the page they belong on.

Sources

• "The Karoo's mini gold bonanza" 21 Feb 2014

Told in

• subject The Prince Albert gold rush
• setting What is under the Koup