Next year marks the 110th anniversary of the railroad's link with Mutare and its history is completely bound up with it. It was on 4 February, 1898, that the whole town turned out to welcome the first locomotive to arrive from Beira and that was the start of the Mutare legend which saw the development on its present site after two previous attempts to establish the city.
The building of the railway was an arduous adventure. They say a man lost his life for every sleeper laid, mostly due to fever, and there is a famous story that a European fitter, sleeping with his boots on outside his tent, lost them both and part of one heel to a lion one night.
It was a tough journey by all accounts ' sometimes held up by wildlife on the track ' and passengers endured hard seats within long narrow carriages. But this was infinitely better than the previous mode of transport, being carried in a machila, a primitive form of palanquin ' two poles and a sling carried by bearers.
The sea route to Beira ' as opposed to Cape Town ' enabled the Manicaland interior to be opened up more swiftly. The Victorian magnate Rhodes had interests there, but another major reason was that it dramatically cut short the distance to a port from the flourishing capital of Salisbury (Harare). The railway reached here the year after the Mutare celebrations.
The city's name means "place of metal" and it was the discovery of gold that drew the first settlers to the region. Chief Mutasa was the ruler when in 1891 a group of pioneers and prospectors arrived in the Penhalonga area and received permission to mine.
They established the first Mutare location at Fort Umtali but this proved unsatisfactory due to the influx of mining claims in an area that had very little level ground. It was, therefore, decided to move a few miles away to be near the Mutare River and so the second Mutare was born. The move to this site was completed in 1891, a collection of huts being built along a central footpath, which later would become the leading road to Harare.
A police camp and hospital served residents who developed a number of shops and small businesses. By 1895 the community was thriving with banks, a church, a school and even a printing shop and all was set for a rosy future with a promise by Rhodes that the railway would be developed from Beira to the new Mutare.
The site for the railway station had been carefully chosen when the crunch came. It was going to be too difficult, impractical and much too expensive to cross the mountain range (Christmas Pass) and reach the new settlement. The disappointment for the residents there was great, but Rhodes now insisted: "If the railway cannot come to Umtali (the pre-independence name for Mutare), Umtali must come to the railway."
Over the pass was a beautiful valley with a few farming communities. It was sheltered by the mountains and, more importantly, had easy access to the railway that was coming from Beira. Land negotiations were completed and the townsfolk were given stands of equal size and relevant positions. The proclamation for the third settlement was signed in Cape Town on 1 October, 1896.
It was the start of one of the greatest undertakings in the history of the country. Soon the old town across the Pass was forsaken and derelict as people moved all they could to the new site: windows, doors, poles, roofs, utensils, in fact anything that could be used to rebuild a life of hope. Gradually this was all accomplished and the site of the Old Umtali was handed over to the American (now United) Methodist Church, which still occupies it today.
The people had a vision but there were many daunting practical tasks ahead of them ' lighting, roads, water and sanitation. The lighting problem was solved with paraffin lamps, streets were named, trees planted and the first suburb was called Darlington.
As the town developed, the fine Kopje House, which still stands today, served as the first hospital, chosen for its healthy position on a high point of the town. It received the first patients, transported by ox-wagon over Christmas Pass, in 1897.
Before the railway, Mutare was served by American stage coaches, which carried passengers and mail. But of all the transport that captures the imagination, nothing surpasses the tramway that ran through the centre of the town from the railway station in the early part of the 19th century. Oxen and mules were used to draw the tram car and 18 passengers could ride it at a fare of sixpence (5 cents). It was so slow that people could overtake it on foot.
The tram, however, was extremely useful in bringing goods from the railway station into town. Six trolleys were once used in transporting the props of a travelling theatre company to the Royal Hotel and the troupe entertained the public for a week. The advent of the motor vehicle brought about the tram's demise in 1914.
By the end of the First World War the Mutare population had grown to
4 000. The township of Sakubva, rebuilt in 1920, became a landmark of progressive planning. At the time it was considered the finest example of African urban settlement in the country.
Today, cloaked in flamboyants and jacarandas and surrounded by purple mountains, Mutare is the gateway to the Eastern Highlands, a region of stunning beauty. There are still some who work the old gold diggings and the railway still throws a lifeline to the sea at Beira.
But no lions prowl the iron road now.
