The railway reaches Beaufort West

1880 · national · Cape Colony / South Africa

Ninety-one kilometres from Klaarstroom. The Cape Government Railways' main line north arrives, and the wool that had gone by wagon through Meiringspoort to Mossel Bay - a million kilograms in the 1870 season alone - has a faster way out. Klaarstroom exists because of a road; this is the year the road stops being the only one. [Added 1 Aug 2026 as timeline context: general history, no source row, and it is here because it bears on this district rather than because it is famous.]

Told in

• mentioned Eighty-one thousand morgen