Bethulie

History

Evidence of life was found to be dated to 250 million years ago in the form of fossils. The first land dwellers to be active in the Bethulie region were the San people, whose various drawings are still in existence in the area. In 1828 a mission station was established by the London Missionary Society for the local San people called the t'kaut'kou (possibly corruption of ǀXam "!kau!karu" meaning either "Moon people" or "Eland people"). It was originally established in an area known to the San as Xweika (Muddy place) and later known as Groot Moordenaarspoort (Murderer's Pass) after a vicious clash between the Sotho and Griqua tribes. In 1832 the missionary Jean Pierre Pellissier, whose home is one of the oldest pioneer buildings north of the Orange River, replaced the London missionaries. It now houses a historical museum displaying items of the past and information on the life and trial of Jean Pellissier and Chief Lephoi and his people. Until 1833 Bethulie was known as Caledon (after the nearby Caledon River). This name was in conflict with a Western Cape town bearing the same name. Then in 1833 a French Missionary Society, the "Paris Evangelical Missionary Society" took over control of the area and renamed the mission station Bethulua, meaning "Place of Worship". In 1835 it was renamed Verheullpolis and in 1863 the town was established and renamed Heidelberg. In 1872 the town was again renamed to Bethulie. During the Anglo-Boer War (1899 to 1902) the third largest concentration camp erected by the British was also situated in Bethulie. * 1777: R.J. Gordon reached the Groot river approximately 10 kilometers from the current Bethulie; he named the river the Oranje river. Mr. Gordon also noted in his drawings of the veldt and his surroundings that he noticed 6…

Most-observed species

• Cape Wagtail

  Motacilla capensis Linnaeus, 1766 · Aves
  86
• Pied Crow

  Corvus albus Statius Muller, 1776 · Aves
  75
• Black-fronted Bulbul

  Pycnonotus nigricans (Vieillot, 1818) · Aves
  70
• Cape Starling

  Lamprotornis nitens (Linnaeus, 1766) · Aves
  63
• African Pied Starling

  Lamprotornis bicolor (Gmelin, 1789) · Aves
  61
• Ring-necked Dove

  Streptopelia capicola (Sundevall, 1857) · Aves
  59
• Hadada Ibis

  Bostrychia hagedash (Latham, 1790) · Aves
  59
• Karoo Thrush

  Turdus smithi Bonaparte, 1850 · Aves
  59

Most recent

• M 4.4 — 2017-09-15
  58 km S of Bloemfontein, South Africa