| The Atacama Desert is an amazing place - renowned | | | | industry and took control of nearly all nitrate production. |
| as the driest place on earth it conjures up images of a | | | | During this boom period towns sprang up around the |
| desolate barren wilderness. Which, of course much of | | | | nitrate plants. |
| it is, but it is also a land of great natural beauty and | | | | The best preserved of these towns is Humberstone, |
| fascinating human history. One such period of its | | | | built in 1862 and named after a later owner, James |
| colourful history was the nitrates boom, which resulted | | | | Humberstone. It is located inland from the city of |
| in the British ghost towns, that still stand, arrogantly | | | | Iquique in an area known as the Pampa - a plateau |
| Victorian in uninhabited parts of the desert where it | | | | between the costal mountains and the Andes. |
| never rains. | | | | Humberstone, like the other nitrate towns, is a ghost |
| Nitrates first began to be commercially exploited in the | | | | town. |
| 1860 when the Atacama Desert belonged to Peru and | | | | The invention of a synthetic method for producing |
| Bolivia. However, in 1878 a dispute between Chile and | | | | ammonium nitrate killed the booming business off as |
| Bolivia over export licences resulted in Chile sending | | | | quickly as it had sprung up. Walking through the |
| troops to the region to protect her interests. War | | | | deserted streets of Humberstone you get the sense |
| broke out with Peru joining in on the side of Bolivia. The | | | | that its inhabitants fled a great natural disaster. |
| result of the ensuing five year war was that Chile | | | | Everything is as it was then, just aged by the harsh |
| remained in possession of the Atacama and its | | | | sun and cold nights. There is a church, a theatre, the |
| nitrates. | | | | humble dwellings of the workers, the grand houses of |
| Nitrates were in much demand in Europe and North | | | | the managers and the processing plant. The only |
| America as the raw material for fertilisers and the | | | | sound is the dry desert wind blowing through the long |
| production of explosives. After the war British | | | | since empty streets relentlessly returning this Victorian |
| companies poured capital in to the Chilean nitrates | | | | relic to desert. |