Humberstone and Santa Laura Saltpeter Works
The Humberstone and Santa Laura sites contain more than 200 former saltpeter plants, where workers from Chile, Peru and Bolivia lived in company towns and formed a unique Pampino community culture. This culture is reflected in their rich language, creativity, solidarity and, most importantly, in their groundbreaking struggle for social justice, which has had a profound impact on social history. Located in a remote area of the Pampas, one of the driest deserts on Earth, thousands of Pampinos lived and worked in this harsh environment for more than 60 years from 1880, processing the world's largest saltpeter deposits to produce sodium nitrate fertilizer, which transformed agricultural lands in North America, South America and Europe and brought great wealth to Chile. Due to the fragility of the buildings and the impact of recent earthquakes, the site has also been included in the List of World Heritage in Danger to help mobilize resources for its conservation.