The first people to occupy the area around Tarkastad were the San who left an abundance of rock art paintings in Grootvlei just north of the town. The first farmers settled in Tarkastad in 1795 who built watermills, inns and both a Dutch Reformed and Presbyterian Church. Two Great Trek leaders, Andries Potgieter and Piet Retief, farmed here for a short while. After the Dutch farmers decided to accompany their leaders on the Great Trek, the English 1820 settlers moved in, and in 1862 Tarkastad was established as a church centre and became a municipality in 1864. Elands River Poort, a mountain pass located on the Karoo, 24 km to the NNW of Tarkastad, where the Battle of Elands River (1901) was fought during the Second Boer War. The grave of Lt. Sheridan, cousin of Winston Churchill, who was killed in the Battle of Elands River can be found on the Modderfontein farm just outside Tarkastad.