Wakkerstroom is steeped in history. Some facts of historical interest about the village:

• The village was founded by Dirk Cornelius Uys (Swart Dirk), who surveyed the area and measured all the erf sizes in Wakkerstroom using a 50-yard long thong cut from an eland bull, which he shot on his arrival in Wakkerstroom.
  
• Wakkerstroom is the third oldest town in the Old Transvaal.
  
• The Court House, St Mark's Church and the Old Bridge over the Wakkerstroom River are all historical monuments.
  
• H. Rider Haggard lived in Hoog Street in Wakkerstroom
  
• During the Anglo-Boer War, the British built a line of twenty-one Block Houses between Volksrust and Wakkerstroom and one hundred between Wakkerstroom and Piet Retief. These were built to protect the British supply route from Durban. There were approximately twenty- one British soldiers per 1.6kms along the border.
  
• Wakkerstroom was occupied by troops of the 58th Regiment North Staffordshires, the 80th Regiment of the South Staffordshires, and the 1st King's Dragoon Guards during 1880/81. Remains of the camps of the South Staffordshire Regiment and the Scots Guards can be seen on the summits of Ossewakop and Voortrekkerkop south of Wakkerstroom.
  
• There are various bushman painting sites in the area surrounding Wakkerstroom. There are seven Khoisan rock art shelters in the area, some with up to eighty individual paintings. Arrangements must be made through the Tourist Information Centre to visit these sites with a qualified guide.

For more information on Wakkerstroom's history, please download the document below.

Wakkerstroom history (136KB)