Humberstone and Santa Laura Works - Great Attractions (Humberstone, Chile)
By : Geo Beats
Published On: 2011-03-13
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Take a tour of Humberstone and Santa Laura Works in Humberstone, Chile - part of the World's Greatest Attractions travel video series by GeoBeats.
Walking into this Chilean ghost town is something like walking onto a Western movie set.
This place is the Humberstone and Santa Laura Saltpeter Works, abandoned since about 1960.
This rather haunting place was once a bustling mining operation from its creation in 1872 until 1958.
These company towns mark what was at one time the largest saltpeter works in the world.
Saltpeter was used for fertilizers, food preservatives, and in explosives, making it a highly valued commodity, and this an important locale.
The saltpeter works remain a valuable place of history and have become UNESCO World Heritage Sites.
