Humberstone, Chile is a ghost town in the desert of Northern Chile, near the bustling port city of Iquique.
The site, which was named a UNESCO world heritage site in 2005 along with the nearby Saint Laura Saltpeter Works, is in danger of falling apart. It is listed as one of the world’s most threatened heritage sites as many of the buildings are decrepit and in dire need of repair. No maintenance occurred at the site for more than forty years. Humberstone is virtually rain-free, but windborne salt from the coast has an impact on the metal sheeting and has caused significant corrosion. Recent earthquakes have also lead to further destruction of the property.
Restorations have begun on many of the buildings, including the return of the hotel to its former glory, where visitors can once again sleep in the beds.
The town was founded in 1872, as a part of the Peru Nitrate company as it was still a part of Peru. The War of the Pacific shortly after gave the region to Chile.
The northern Chilean desert was an unparallel natural source of sodium nitrate, which was used for fertilizer and the manufacture of explosives. The nitrate industry produced great wealth for the South American nation and helped transform the agricultural landscape of North America and Europe. In 1929, the nitrate boom came to a halt with the stock market crash and the US Great Depression. Synthetic fertilizers were discovered soon after and the industry never recovered.
The Humberstone and Santa Laura Saltpeter works contain over 200 former sites where workers from Chile, Peru and Bolivia lived in company towns and created a characteristic pampinos culture defined by language, creativity, and camaraderie.
Highlights:
-The cast iron swimming pool made from the hull of an old ship.
-The market/grocer where signs still hang on the walls listing prices for ice and produce.
-The old, rusting machinery scattered about the site.
-World class performers were brought in to play at the theater, now a ghostly, empty auditorium that many say is haunted.
-The hotel, where many visiting entertainers, dignitaries, and business people stayed. Now being restored.
-The marketplace run by a few campesinos selling crafts, antiques, and coca leaves.
To get to Humberstone, take any bus heading east from Iquique. The site is 48 miles from the coast.
Chilean writer Isabel Allende once stated that just by hearing the words ghost town like the ones in Northern Chile her imagination went racing.
Other nitrate towns include: Chacabuco, Maria Elena, Pedro de Valdivia, Puelma and Aguas Santas. Chacabuco later used as a concentration camp during Pinochet's regime and is still surrounded by landmines.
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