Magaliesberg Kaleidoskoop - W. Meyer

For many years members of one family was prominent in the Hartbeespoort area. The first was General Hendrik Schoeman, an intimate friend of President Paul Kruger, who established himself on the banks of the Crocodile River near the poort in 1868 and called his farm Schoemansrus where he eventually built the first dam. Apart from the dam he also visualised a township with industries for the area, but the Anglo Boer War put paid to these plans. After his tragic and controversial demise, his son, Johan Hendrik, went on to realise his father’s dreams and for the first half of the 20^th century played a dominant role in the development and promotion of the area. When the government wanted to build a dam in the poort it couldn’t afford to fully compensate the owners of the land in the dam basin. Johan Schoeman made the most of the concessions he was able to extract from the government. This determined the nature and utilisation of property ownership around the lake.