Vredefort

Vredefort is a small farming town in the Free State province of South Africa. People there raise cattle and grow peanuts, sorghum, sunflowers, and maize. About 3,000 people live in Vredefort.

The town was founded in 1876 on a farm named Visgat. It sits right on the Vredefort impact structure, which is the largest and oldest visible crater made by a space rock in the world. This crater is about 300 kilometres (190 miles) wide. A big space rock hit Earth there about 2.02 billion years ago, and this event helped protect the gold-rich rocks of the Free State.

The name Vredefort means "peace fort" in Afrikaans and Dutch. It was named after a time when a possible war between the Transvaal and the Orange Free State was peacefully resolved. During the Second Boer War, a place for concentration camp was built there by the British to keep families safe.

Today, the Vredefort Dome is recognized as one of the oldest and largest places where a space rock hit Earth. It was named a World Heritage Site thanks to the work of scientists from Wits University.

Notable residents

Vredefort has been home to several well-known people. Some of them include Alba Bouwer, T.T. Cloete, and Hendrik van den Bergh.