In 1801, William Anderson and Cornelius Kramer, of the London Missionary Society, established a Missionary Station, among the Griqua at Leeuwenkuil. The site proved too arid for cultivation. In about 1805 they moved the Missionary Station to another spring further up the Valley and called it Klaarwater. Their second choice was little better than their first, and for many years a lack of water prevented any further development. The name of the Settlement was changed later to Griquatown or Griekwastad in Afrikaans. They lived among a mixed nomadic community of the Chaguriqua tribe and "bastaards" (people of mixed origin) from Piketberg. Their two leaders Andries Waterboer and Adam Kok II later had a dispute and Kok left for Philippolis.
From 1813 to 17 July 1871, the Town and its surrounding Area functioned; as Waterboer's Land. Waterboer himself lived in a "palace", which in reality was a House with six rooms. A Monument for Waterboer was later erected near the Town's Hospital.
Dr. Robert Moffat and his wife Mary, on their way to the Town of Kuruman, were residing in Griquatown when their daughter, also Mary (later Mrs. David Livingstone), was born in 1821. There is now a Museum that is dedicated to her rather than the founder of the Town, William Anderson.
Griekwastad was later the capital of British Colony, Griqualand West from 1873 to 1880, with its own flag and currency, before it was annexed into the Cape Colony.
Nowadays, the Town is best known for the semi-precious stones found there, particularly: 'Tiger's Eye and Jasper'. Sheep farming occurs with dorpers, a South African breed.
An infamous murder in Griekwastad took place on a farm on Easter Friday, 2012. A 15-year-old youth was accused of the murders of Northern Cape farmer Deon Steenkamp, 44, his wife Christelle, 43, and daughter Marthella, 14. The son, Don Steenkamp, aged 17, the only surviving member and brother to Marthella, stood to inherit a sizable share of the inheritances. Don Steenkamp is the Griekwastad Murderer, a true Crime Novel has been written about the infamous murders by one of South Africa's leading reporters, Jacques Steenkamp, entitled 'The Griekwastad Murders: The Crime that Shook South Africa'.
