The key town of Hoopstad is situated at the intersection of the R34,

R59 R59 may refer to: * R59 (London Underground car) * R59 (South Africa), a road * , a destroyer of the Royal Navy * Mini Roadster, a car * R59: Dangerous for the ozone layer, a risk phrase {{Letter-NumberCombDisambig ...

& R700 in the

Free State Province The Free State, known as Orange Free State until the 28th of June 1995 when its name was changed, is a province of South Africa. Its capital is Bloemfontein, which is also South Africa's judicial capital. Its historical origins lie in the Boer ...

. This area is considered to be the richest

maize Maize ( ; ''Zea mays'' subsp. ''mays'', from es, maíz after tnq, mahiz), also known as corn ( North American and Australian English), is a cereal grain first domesticated by indigenous peoples in southern Mexico about 10,000 years ago. ...

-producing district in

South Africa South Africa, officially the Republic of South Africa (RSA), is the southernmost country in Africa. It is bounded to the south by of coastline that stretch along the South Atlantic and Indian Oceans; to the north by the neighbouring count ...

. The town is located near the

Bloemhof Bloemhof is an agricultural town of about 2,000 inhabitants situated on the banks of the Vaal River in North West Province of South Africa. History It was founded in August 1864 when diamonds were discovered in the area. The town was establishe ...

Dam which is situated on the

Vaal River The Vaal River ( ; Khoemana: ) is the largest tributary of the Orange River in South Africa. The river has its source near Breyten in Mpumalanga province, east of Johannesburg and about north of Ermelo and only about from the Indian Ocea ...

. The

Sandveld Nature Reserve Sandveld Nature Reserve is a protected area Protected areas or conservation areas are locations which receive protection because of their recognized natural, ecological or cultural values. There are several kinds of protected areas, which va ...

is positioned alongside the Bloemhof Dam. Hopetown and Hoopstad are two different towns and are often confused.

History and activities

The town of Hoopstad was initially founded in 1876 and named Hauptstad after Mr Haupt, a surveyor. The translation of Hauptstad into Afrikaans means Capital, which it clearly wasn’t and the town was therefore renamed Hoopstad. The town, whose name means "Hope City" in

Afrikaans Afrikaans (, ) is a West Germanic language that evolved in the Dutch Cape Colony from the Dutch vernacular of Holland proper (i.e., the Hollandic dialect) used by Dutch, French, and German settlers and their enslaved people. Afrikaans g ...

, was established on the one side of the large farm ''Kameeldoorns'', with another town Bultfontein on the other side.

References

{{Authority control Populated places in the Tswelopele Local Municipality Populated places established in 1873