Springfontein

Springfontein was founded in 1904 on a farm called Hartleydale, named for the strong artesian spring on the property. The name means jumping fountain in Afrikaans. The town's existence and layout were determined by the railway, and the convergence of main lines from Port Elizabeth, East London, and Cape Town made it a strategically significant junction. During the Anglo-Boer War, the camp established just east of town became one of the documented sites in Emily Hobhouse's investigation of British concentration camp conditions. The cemetery east of town holds the graves of around 700 Boer and British victims. De Bome, the house where Hobhouse stayed during her visits, still stands near the site.

The railway junction remains the town's most distinctive feature. Trains from the southern ports converge here before heading north toward Johannesburg, and the infrastructure of that junction, the signal boxes, the sidings, the old station buildings, gives Springfontein a character that is partly industrial and partly historical. The blockhouses from the war period are still visible on the approaches to town.

The Gariep Dam is accessible via the N1 and R71, roughly halfway between Springfontein and Colesberg. The dam draws anglers, boaters, and game viewers to the nature reserve on its banks. Springfontein works as a half-way stop on the N1 between Bloemfontein and Cape Town, and that function accounts for most of its visitor traffic. The town has guesthouses and a truck stop that serve long-haul travellers.

The landscape here is flat southern Free State Karoo, wide and dry, with the occasional koppie breaking the horizon. It is not dramatic country but it has the particular bleached clarity that this part of the Free State does well. Springfontein is a town you pass through and stop in, rather than a destination you plan around.