The town was founded in 1848 as a mission station on the farm Backhouse, by the Reverend Isaac Hughes. In 1867, a group of Europeans from Griquatown signed an agreement giving them the right to establish a town.
It was named after General Sir Percy Douglas, Lieutenant Governor of the CapeColony. Near the confluence of the Orange River and its main tributary, the VaalRiver, Douglas is a thriving, fast-growing town surrounded by a wealth of agricultural and stockfarming ventures fed by two of South Africa's greatest rivers.
