30: Saltpeter

It was another beautiful day in Chile and we had another unique site to visit. About an hour from Iquique there is a site called the Humberstone Saltpeter Works. Humberstone is one of the many UNESCO World Heritage sites we’ve visited along the way. It was a functioning saltpeter refinery until 1960, was abandoned and turned into a ghost town, and then in 1970 was declared a national monument before becoming a UNESCO site in 2005.

Saltpeter was mined in the surrounding areas and refined for use in fertilizers and explosives. Humberstone was one of a handful of refineries in the area. The site was located in Peru when it was first started, but ultimately became part of Chile during the War of the Pacific.  

Humberstone was a company town. Housing was provided for all of the employees, with the level of comfort aligned with station. Residents had access to a hospital, a school, a theater, and a church onsite. They bought their food and supplies at the company store. In the early days the company store items were intentionally priced so the cost of goods necessary to survive was more than what a low-level worker was paid, so the employees were always in debt and basically became indentured servants trying to pay back the company. In later years, new waves of leadership abolished those practices and treated workers more fairly.  

The town generated it’s own electricity. Workers would make specialized tools by hand to make their jobs easier. And the work was dirty, dirty, dirty. It was a hard life.

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The trip to Humberstone was incredibly interesting, but exhausting. We drove back to Iquique and Tracy made an incredible meal. One of the big advantages of renting an apartment. 

Tomorrow we hang out in Iquique.

Til then…