This Day in History: 8 October 1853
Pieter Jacobs Marais reports his discovery of alluvial gold in the Jukskei River on B.J. Liebenberg's farm, Bultfontein, in 1853. The site was just north of the present Sandton. Though Marais thought that he was the first person to discover gold in this area, Johannesburg history proved him wrong. Allegedly Carel Kruger, who was hunting in the area, had discovered gold in 1834, while John Henry Davis, an English geologist, prospected around Krugersdorp in 1852, where his effort was apparently met with some success. The discovery of the Witwatersrand Main Reef by the two brothers H.W. and F.P.T. Struben in 1886, led to the birth of Johannesburg.
