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

R34 R34 may refer to: * R34 (New York City Subway car) * R34 (South Africa) * HM Airship ''R.34'', a rigid airship of the Royal Air Force * , a destroyer of the Royal Navy * Nissan Skyline (R34), a mid-size car * Nissan Skyline GT-R (R34), a sports ca ...

, R59 & 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. Th ...

-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 countri ...

. 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 (South Africa), North West Province of South Africa. History It was founded in August 1864 when diamonds were discovered i ...

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 Ocean. ...

. The

Sandveld Nature Reserve Sandveld Nature Reserve is a protected area, located on the border between the Free State and North West provinces. Location It is located on the Free State side of the Bloemhof Dam. The Bloemhof Dam lies where the Vaal River and the Vet River ...

is positioned alongside the Bloemhof Dam.

Hopetown Hopetown is a town which lies at the edge of the Great Karoo in South Africa's Northern Cape province. It is situated on an arid slope leading down to the Orange River. The first diamond discovered in South Africa, the Eureka Diamond, was fo ...

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 gra ...

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

Bultfontein Bultfontein is a town in the Free State province of South Africa with a total population of about 23,400 people. It is situated in the Tswelopele Local Municipality, about north of Bloemfontein. The town site was laid out in 1873; it had been ...

on the other side.

References

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