Grootfontein is a city in north eastern Namibia. It lies on the B8, a Namibian National Road that leads from
Windhoek to the Caprivi Strip, in the
Otavi triangle. In Afrikaans, its name means "Big Spring" - there is indeed a large hot spring near the town.
In 1885, 40 Boer families from the north-west of South Africa settled at
Grootfontein. Part of the Dorslandtrekker, they were heading towards Angola. When that territory fell under Portuguese control, they turned back and tried to establish the "Republic Upingtonia" at
Grootfontein. Abandoned by 1887, it became the headquarters of the South West Africa Company in 1893.
Like all the towns in the
Otavi triangle,
Grootfontein is very green in summer but drier in winter. In spring, jacaranda and flamboyant trees bloom in profusion. The town has an old German Schutztruppe fortress from the year 1896, which today houses a museum that expounds on the local history.
The economic mainspring of the area were for many decades the Berg Aukas and Abenab mines to the north east of the town. These produced zinc and vanadium but have since closed. This is dolomite country and the carbonate deposits in the upper parts of the mine have yielded interesting fossils of simian or pongoid creatures that lived millions of years before modern humans evolved.
Twenty four kilometres west of Grootfontein lies the huge
Hoba meteorite. At over 60 tons, it is the largest known meteorite on Earth, as well as being the largest naturally occurring mass of iron known to exist on the planet's surface.
Grootfontein is a railhead on TransNamib, the national railway and transport system. Grootfontein also has a military base which housed several units of the now departed South African Defence Force. It has an airfield that can handle large transport carriers such as the Hercules C130, as well as commercial passenger aircraft.
Linear Mode
