The earliest known forms of African sculpture in southern Africa dating back to AD 400 were found in the area in the late 1950s. Mashishing later renamed Lydenburg was colonized in 1849 by a group of Voortrekkers under the leadership of Andries Potgieter when they abandoned their previous settlement Ohrigstad due to a malaria epidemic. The town became the capital of the Lydenburg Republic in 1856 and later in 1857 joined the Republic of Utrecht but in 1860 both these republics joined the Zuid Afrikaanse Republiek.The town became the capital of the Lydenburg District of the South African Republic. Lydenburg became important because it was on the wagon route to the port of Delagoa Bay which was free of British control. In 1871 construction of the road was started by Abraham Espag under the orders of President Thomas François Burgers. The first wagons arrived in Lydenburg from Delagoa Bay in 1874. On 6 February 1873 alluvial gold was discovered and within 3 months the Lydenburg goldfields was proclaimed. The First Boer War broke out between Britain and the Transvaal Republic in 1880. A British garrison under Lieutenant Walter Hillyar Colquhoun Long took control of Lydenburg to control the goldfields. It was from here that the ill-fated 94th Regiment under the command of Lieutenant-ColonelPhilip Robert Anstruther marched to Pretoria. The remainder of the garrison at Lydenburg was besieged from 6 January 1881, following Long's refusal to surrender the garrison on 23 December 1880. By 1910 the railway reached Lydenburg. In 1927 Lydenburg became a municipality.
Name change
In June 2006 it was announced that Arts and Culture minister, Pallo Jordan, approved the name change of Lydenburg back to its original name Mashishing. However the decision was taken to court and ruled illegal and ordered the name to be changed back to Lydenburg. However the Township outside Lydenburg is called Mashishing. Road signs still say Lydenburg and businesses and local building such as the Lydenburg Museum have still kept the old name. However some road signs say Mashishing when a person is actually entering the more developed, richer, Lydenburg area.
