Information provided by Hans Bornman from his unpublished book, Lowveld Tour Guide:
Low mountain pass on the farm Dolton, 2 km south of Kaapmuiden. Named after Robert (Bob) Pettigrew (1847-1897) who was responsible for building the transport road between Barberton and the Lebombo mountains in c1885/6 and which became known as Pettigrew’s Road. Owing to the many ‘hotels’ on this road it also became known as ‘Leopard Crawl Road’. It is not recorded whether it was owing to the ‘leopard’s milk’ causing the patrons to crawl from one ‘hotel’ to the next. Due to the magnesite outcrop found in the pass it was a nightmare in wet weather and two spans of oxen were needed to pull the wagons through. This pass was officially named Pettigrew Nek on 19 November 1987 by Mr Jacob de Villiers, then Chairman of the Regional Development Advice Committee for Region F.