The Kruger National Park is a South African National Park and one of the largest game reserves in Africa. Originally known as The Sabi Game Reserve, it became a game reserve in 1898. The park became known as Kruger National Park in 1926, when it was named after Paul Kruger.

The Sabi Game Reserve: 1898–1913

In 1898, the Sabi Game Reserve was proclaimed by the South African Republic. The reserve covered an area of 1,210,000 morgen equivalent to . Before any effective management could take over, the South African War broke out the following year. After the occupation of the Transvaal by British forces, Captain H. F. Francis was appointed as the first Warden of the Sabi Game Reserve in 1901.Carruthers, Jane, The Kruger National Park: A Social and Political History, University of Natal Press, Pietermaritzburg, 1995. However, he was killed in action a month later, at the end of July 1901. A former prospector, W. M. Walker, was then appointed as the second Warden on 24 October 1901. He was dismissed at the end of January 1902 after proving to be a dismal failure in the post. Finally, the new British administration appointed James Stevenson-Hamilton as Warden of the reserve in July 1902. To assist him in his duties, the new Warden started appointing the first game rangers. Each one was given the responsibility of a section of the reserve. Captain E. G. (Gaza) Gray and Rupert Atmore only lasted for a few months and they were replaced with Harry Wolhuter (August 1902) and Thomas Duke (December 1902). They were stationed, respectively, at Pretoriuskop and Lower Sabie. In May 1903 Cecil Richard de Laporte was appointed to the Kaapmuiden post.Pienaar, U. de V., Neem uit die Verlede, Sigma Pers, 1990. Shingwedzi Game Reserve, now in northern Kruger National Park, was proclaimed in May 1903. Apart from Stevenson-Hamilton's duties as Warden of the Sabi Game Reserve, this new reserve's administration was also added to his responsibilities. He visited and explored the Shingwedzi Reserve for the first time during September and October 1903. He appointed Major A. A. Fraser as the first ranger for this new reserve in 1904. The eccentric Fraser was stationed at the Malunzane rangers post, not far from the present Mopani rest camp.

Proclamation No. 31 of 1906 restricted hunting in a large area between the Olifants and Letaba rivers.

In May 1905 the Sabi Reserve had almost 3,000 black residents, and in 1911 Stevenson-Hamilton reported that there were 4,100 people living in the Sabi Reserve.

The Sabi Game Reserve: 1914–1926 + Estimate Wildlife Population for 1918 Species Estimate Species Estimate African buffalo 250 Elephant 65 Black rhinoceros 6 White rhinoceros None Burchell's zebra 3,500 Bushbuck 4,000 Sable antelope 3,500 Impala 6,800 Giraffe 210 Greater kudu 3,000 Hippopotamus 195 Klipspringer 4,500 Roan antelope 800 Common tsessebe 1,000 Blue wildebeest 5,000 Waterbuck 6,500

In 1916 the Administrator of the Transvaal appointed a commission to inquire into and report upon the advisability of altering the boundaries of the Sabi and Shingwedzi game reserves and on matters generally affecting the two reserves. The members of the commission visited the Sabi game reserve during the dry season of 1916. The commission sat at intervals through 1917 and 1918 and towards the end of 1918 it issued its report. Considering that some members of this commission wanted to reduce the area of the Sabi Game Reserve as recently as 1915, the report was extraordinarily favourable to the reserves and the ideals embodied in them. The report recommended that there should be no changes to the boundaries of either reserve; that additional staff should be appointed; and most importantly made the following pronouncement:

In the course of our investigations we were not a little struck by the uselessness of having these magnificent reserves merely for the preservation of the fauna - in an area practically unknown and, by the effect of a somewhat stringent policy, made to a great extent inaccessible to the bulk of the people - a policy which it will be increasingly difficult to maintain as applied to so large an area ... for these and other reasons we recommend that the policy of the provincial administration should be directed toward the creation of the area ultimately as a great national park where the natural and prehistoric conditions of our country can be preserved for all time.

During 1923, the first large groups of tourists started visiting the Sabi Game Reserve, but only as part of the South African Railways' popular "Round in Nine" tours. The tourist trains used the Selati railway line between Komatipoort on the Mozambican border and Tzaneen in the then northern Transvaal. The tour included an overnight stop at Sabi Bridge (now Skukuza) and a short walk, escorted by armed rangers, into the bush. It soon became a highlight of the tour and it gave valuable support for the campaign to proclaim the Sabi Game Reserve as a national park.Bulpin, T.V., Treasury of Travel Series: Kruger National Park, Creda Press, 1974.

The Kruger National Park: 1926–1929

After the proclamation of the Kruger National Park, named for president Paul Kruger (1825-1904), in 1926, the first three tourist cars entered the park in 1927.Stevenson-Hamilton, James. (1937). South African Eden: The Kruger National Park 1902-1946. Struik Publishers, 1993. No accommodation was provided for visitors. They made their own camps in enclosures of thorn bush. Tourists could come and go at any time, day or night. The bad roads prevented any speeding. Night driving, however, had to be ended as too many animals, dazzled by headlights, were getting killed.

A rapid road construction program was started in 1927, and by the end of 1929 a total of 617 km of tourist roads was completed. The first roads connected the established ranger posts.

The all-year round opening of the park had to be ended in 1929. Not only was the effects of rain chaotic on the primitive roads, it also caused a public relations disaster in March 1929 when a large group of American tourists arrived by luxury train at Crocodile Bridge. With two big trucks as transport, they went on a game drive and soon got bogged down after a big rainstorm. One truck also overturned on crossing a stream. The drenched tourists had to perch in thorn trees to avoid lions. Local ranger Hector McDonald and his staff eventually came to the rescue. It was one big adventure, but the bad publicity started when several of these visitors went down with malaria. Apart from the Pretoriuskop area, from 1930 the park was closed down from the end of October until the end of May.

The 1930s +Number of annual visitors to the Kruger National ParkLabuschagne, R.J. 60 years Kruger Park, National Parks Board of Trustees of the Union of South Africa, Pretoria, 1958 Year Total visitors 1932 3 025 1938 38 014

The construction of roads continued during the Thirties, and by 1934 about 1,200 km of roads had been completed. This included the roads between Skukuza and Lower Sabie (1931) and between Letaba and Shingwedzi (1933).

During October 1936, the last black rhino in the park was seen by ranger Harry Kirkman in the dense Nwatimhiri bush between Skukuza and Lower Sabie. Kirkman and three members of his staff observed a lone cow for about half an hour before she disappeared again. It was the last sighting of a black rhino in the park and by 1946 the species was extinct in the park.Pienaar, U. De V. The Large Mammals of the Kruger National Park: Their Distribution and Present-Day Status. Koedoe Vol 6 No 1 (1963)Kloppers, Hannes. Veldwagter!, Janssonius & Heyns, 1972.

The 1940s

Because the park shares a long (and unguarded) border with Mozambique, the outbreak of World War II in September 1939 caused little panic among locals and government officials in Pretoria. In June 1940 an alarming report of some two thousand Nazis concentrating on the Mozambican side of the frontier was received by the chief of the Union Defence Force General Staff. He summoned Warden Stevenson-Hamilton to Pretoria to discuss the situation. The bemused Warden managed to calm down the agitated members of the General Staff after explaining that, not only would the Portuguese authorities allow no such thing to happen in their colony, the arrival of even one strange European in the tribal areas would be discussed within days for many miles around.

Despite the war and a steep decline in the number of foreign visitors, 1940 turned out to be a fairly prosperous year for the park. In July 1941 the Greek royal family visited the park. Some six weeks after fleeing the invading German forces, King George II had to flee again: this time from amateur photographers and autograph hunters at Pretoriuskop rest-camp.

The first petrol rationing came at the end of 1941 and it was decided to open the park only so far north as the Sabie River for the 1942 season. The petrol ration was cut again in early 1943. Because this allowed only local tourists to visit the park, the whole park east of Pretoriuskop was closed from 1943 until May 1946.

Warden James Stevenson-Hamilton retired on 30 April 1946, after 44 years as warden of the Kruger Park and its predecessor, the Sabi Game Reserve. He was replaced by Colonel J. A. B. Sandenburg. Sandenburg resigned at the end of 1953.

In 1946 the park resumed with a normal tourist season after the disruption of the war years. The park became even more popular with 58,739 visitors in 1948 compared to 38,014 visitors in 1938.

The 1950s

A Zambesi shark, Carcharhinus leucas, also known as the bull shark, was caught at the confluence of the Limpopo and Luvuvhu Rivers in July 1950. Zambezi sharks tolerate fresh water and can travel far up rivers like the Limpopo.Pienaar, U. de V., The Freshwater Fishes of the Kruger National Park, Koedoe Vol 11, No 1 (1968)

The then senior ranger, Louis Steyn, was appointed to succeed Sandenburg in 1954.

In 1955, the number of visitors (101,058) exceeded 100,000 a year for the first time.

During 1957 the nest-building activities of two bird species, the spotted-back weaver and lesser masked weaver, threatened to destroy 51 large trees in Skukuza Rest Camp. To save these trees a total of 2,670 birds were destroyed from November 1957 to January 1958.Kruger National Park: Annual Report of the Biologist, 1958/1959

During 1959, work commenced to completely fence the park boundaries.

1960–1969

+Numbers of animals culled in the Kruger National Park: 1964–1969Joubert, Salomon, The Kruger National Park: A History Volume II, High Branching, Johannesburg, 2007 Year Elephant Buffalo Hippo Zebra Wildebeest Impala 1964 - - 116 - - - 1965 - - - 10 164 - 1966 - 100 - 173 344 3046 1967 - - - 80 562 2497 1968 355 390 - 78 237 1242 1969 460 786 - 387 527 1585

Warden Steyn retired on 20 April 1961. He was replaced by the chief biologist, A. M. Brynard, who took on the new title of nature conservator.

With visitor numbers increasing every new year – 216,680 and 306,346 in 1964 and 1968 respectively – tourist infrastructure was significantly improved during the Sixties. The first big camp (Olifants) for many years was opened in 1960 and more picnic sites were provided. It was also decided to tarmac the surface of arterial roads and the first tarmac road from Numbi Gate to Pretoriuskop and Skukuza was opened in 1965. With better roads, more of the park was opened throughout the year, Skukuza from 1962; Lower Sabie, Crocodile Bridge and as far north as Tshokwane in 1963; and the whole area as far as the Letaba River in 1964.

During October 1961 the first batch of 4 white rhinos were translocated from Natal and released in a special enclosure near Pretoriuskop. They were reintroduced to the park after they became extinct around 1896. By September 1964 a total of 98 white rhinos had been moved to the park.