Rouxville, Free State
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Rouxville is a small wool and cattle farming town in the Free State province of South Africa and situated on the N6 national route. It started after mail irrgularities at Aliwal North led authorities to re-direct mail between the Cape Colony and the Orange Free State to the farm Zuurbult (founded by Petrus Wepenaar) in 1863. A town sprung up and was named after Dutch Reformed Church Reverend Pieter Roux of the Smithfield parish. Roux traveled throughout the Eastern Free State for many years holding church services for local communities.
During the Anglo-Boer war all of the town's citizens were called up for military service and the town was completely deserted for two years. The town is at the centre of the wool producing area of the Transgariep.
Rouxville is situated near a number of other interesting locations - Zastron (30 km), Aliwal North (33 km), Smithfield (38 km), Gariep Dam (ca. 60 km) and Bethulie are all within easy reach. The country of Lesotho is ca. 70 km away. Places such as Lady Grey, the Witteberg mountain range (with the 2,769 m Avoca peak) and the Drakensberg mountain range are all also easily accessible from Rouxville.
The story goes that in the past, the distance between Smithfield and Aliwal North (70 km) was too long to be done in one day by horse and wagon, and as such Rouxville was created as the halfway stopover.
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