Hopetown was founded in 1850 when Sir
Harry Smith extended the northern frontier of the
Cape Colony to the
Orange River. A handful of settlers claimed ground where there was a natural ford over the Orange River, and by 1854 a frontier town had developed. Hopetown was named after
William Hope, Auditor-General and Secretary of the Cape Colony Government at the time, and is often mistaken for a town in the
Free State, South Africa, called
Hoopstad. Hopetown was a quiet farming area until several large diamonds, most notable the
Eureka Diamond and the
Star of South Africa, were discovered there between 1867 and 1869. The
Cape Government Railways were founded in 1872, and the
Cape government decided to run the main western line, between the
Kimberley diamond fields and
Cape Town on the coast, directly through Hopetown. The ford was upgraded to a railway bridge in 1884. == References ==