Mac-Mac is a historical area in the

Mpumalanga Mpumalanga () is one of the nine provinces of South Africa. The name means "East", or literally "The Place Where the Sun Rises" in the Nguni languages. Mpumalanga lies in eastern South Africa, bordering Eswatini and Mozambique. It shares bor ...

province of

South Africa South Africa, officially the Republic of South Africa (RSA), is the Southern Africa, southernmost country in Africa. Its Provinces of South Africa, nine provinces are bounded to the south by of coastline that stretches along the Atlantic O ...

, and the site of the country's earliest

gold rush A gold rush or gold fever is a discovery of gold—sometimes accompanied by other precious metals and rare-earth minerals—that brings an onrush of miners seeking their fortune. Major gold rushes took place in the 19th century in Australia, ...

. It is located near the town of

Sabie Sabie is a forestry town situated on the banks of the Sabie River in Mpumalanga, South Africa. The name Sabie is derived from the Xitsonga language word "Sava" which means "Sand" because of the rich Sand in the area . The word Sava was moderniz ...

, 5 km from Pilgrim's Rest. While a number of small gold deposits had been discovered in the northern parts of South Africa between 1840 and 1870, Mac-Mac was the first place where payable quantities of gold were found. In 1873 gold was discovered on the farm Geelhoutboom. President Burgers officially named the area the ''New Caledonian Gold Fields'', but it became known as ''Mac-Mac'' because of the amount of Scottish diggers at the camp. Within one year, 1,500 diggers made 4,000 claims. The nearby Mac Mac twin falls, originally a single stream, acquired their current appearance when gold miners blasted the stream to reach the gold-bearing reef over which it drops. In the late 1990s the old forestry station and forester houses were used to start the Mac Mac Forest Retreat.

References

{{coord, -24.991, 30.813, display=title History of Mpumalanga Tourist attractions in Mpumalanga