About Okiep

DISTANCE SPRINGBOK TO OKIEP: 8 km

The town's name was derived from the Nama word 'U-gieb', meaning 'the great, brackish spring'.

Okiep was the world's richest copper mine until production ceased in 1928. Okiep echoes the copper boom years, being the oldest mining town in South Africa where copper was first discovered and mined in 1855.

Forst Shelton, on the road between Okiep and Concordia, was the main fortification of the Home Guard during the siege of Okiep from 1 April to 23 May 1902. Nine-hundred defenders, mostly Cape Copper Company employees, built nine blockhouses and repulsed General Jan Smuts's forces' concerted efforts to take the town. Today only the remnants of stone walls remain.

Attractions

• ANGLO BOER WAR:
  Crows Nest Blockhouse in a hill north east of Okiep which fell to the Boers and was occupied by them for most of the siege before being retaken. Fort Shelton saw the major part of the action during the siege and was manned by a 6 pounder gun.
• GRAFFITI
  created by the Cape Town Highlanders and Cape Garrison Artillery, can be viewed in the Okiep East Mine while casulaties fron the war were laid to rest in the Okiep graveyard.
• CORNISH PUMP HOUSE:
  Steam Engine - fully intact and the only remaining pump house of its kind in the Souther Hemisphere which was used to pump water from the mine in 1882.
• FORT SHELTON:
  Situated between Okiep and Concordia this was the main fortification of the the Home Guard during the Siege of Okiep from 01 April to 23 May 1902.
• GEOLOGICAL SITES:
  Klondike and Magabreccia sites can be seen in the surrounding area.
• SMOKESTACK:
  Built by the Cape Copper Company as a ventilation shaft in 1880, this is now a national monument.