Hopetown - there is a story!

I knew it - There is a story behind the name. The legend goes something like this. Michiel van Niekerk who owned the farm on which Hopetown was established, gave his wife a necklace. She lost the necklace after he died. One of her helpers made a tin copy from memory, and they nailed it to the entrance of the farmhouse. The house was demolished after the necklace was carefully removed and placed above the door of another farmhouse owned by the Curry's. The town got its name from this symbol because the necklace was a symbol of hope.
Hopetown was founded in 1858, and is the place where the first recorded diamond in South Africa was found. Who wOuld have thought Newton's apple has a rival! In 1866 a 15-year old boy, Erasmus Jacobs, was playing with a stone when a neighbor, Schalk van Niekerk, saw him. He spotted the potential value and got hold of it. Long story short it eventually ended up in the hands of the magistrate of Colesberg. Boyes tested it by carving the initials DP into his office window pane, which can still be seen. It was confirmed to be a 21,25 carat diamond. Sir Philip Woodhouse, Governor of the Cape, bought the stone for 500 British Pounds, quite an amount in those days. This stone is known as EUREKA.

A diamond rush started after mOre stones were found in the area, and after a Griqua witch doctor with the name Booi picked up an 83,5 carat diamond. This biggie is the Star of South Africa. Sadly for the hopefulls the rush brought no other major finds.