Travel Guide Barberton

Barberton dreamed of itself as the gold-spun capital of the great South Africa. In the 1880s, after the discovery of gold at Kaapsehoop by the Frenchman Auguste Robert, Graham, Fred and Harry Barber came here to try their luck. On June 24, 1884, a bottle of gin was smashed on a rock to christen the camp Barberton. For four years, investors from all over the world only had eyes for this remote corner: at a time when Johannesburg was only a dull plain, Barberton proudly lined up its hotels, its stock exchange, its businesses, and slutted around with beauty queens with evocative names like Golden Dane or Trixy. But in 1888, it was all over. The crash was to ruin thousands of Britons who had bet big on the Barberton mines. The Kaap River Valley, known as "Death Valley" because of the ravages of malaria, deserved its name more than ever. Today, about 40 kilometres south of Nelspruit, the town of Barberton and its 25,000 inhabitants produce pecans, tropical fruits, coffee and cotton. American researchers from NASA have collected 3.2 billion year old rocks from the area to compare with lunar fragments. From a geological point of view, the city is known for this belt of old green rocks: it is called "the Barbeton belt". A natural formation that has become famous in the area!