Museo de Sitio Oficinas Salitreras Humberstone y Santa Laura

Useful Information

Location:	Humberstone: Ruta 16 km 47, Pozo Almonte, Tarapacá, (-20.2089609, -69.7955091) Santa Laura: Calle de Servicio 3672, Alto Hospicio, Tarapacá. (-20.21126, -69.81221)
Open:	16-MAR to NOV daily 9-18. DEC to 15-MAR daily 9-19. Closed 01-JAN. [2024]
Fee:	Adults CLP 4,000, Children (0-6) free, Students (MAR to 15-DEC) CLP 2,000, Seniors (60+) CLP 3,000, [2024]
Classification:
Light:	Incandescent
Dimension:
Guided tours:
Photography:
Accessibility:
Bibliography:
Address:	Museo de Sitio Oficinas Salitreras Humberstone y Santa Laura, Tel: +56-.
As far as we know this information was accurate when it was published (see years in brackets), but may have changed since then. Please check rates and details directly with the companies in question if you need more recent info.

History

1872	Guillermo Wendell Nitrate Extraction Company founds the saltpeter works of Santa Laura.
1872	James Thomas Humberstone founds the Peru Nitrate Company and establishes the works of La Palma.
1883	after the War of the Pacific under the Treaty of Ancón the area the region was annexed by Chile.
1902	Santa Laura taken over by the Tamarugal Nitrate Company.
1913	production at Santa Laura halted.
1929	during the Great Depression the saltpeter mining collapses.
1934	both sites acquired by Compañía Salitrera de Tarapacá y Antofagasta (COSATAN), La Palma renamed Oficina Santiago Humberstone in honor of its founder.
1940	Humberstone is the most successful saltpeter works.
1958	COSATAN corrupt.
1960	both sites closed.
1970	sites declared National Monuments.
23-NOV-1997	constituent assembly Corporación Museo del Salitre (CMS).
11-NOV-1999	Corporation Museum of Saltpeter (CMS) founded.
2005	inscribed on the UNESCO World Heritage List.

Geology

Potassium nitrate (KNO₃) is an ionic salt and easily dissolved by water. Nevertheless, it occurs naturally, as deposits in Chile and California, in caves, especially in the form of bat guano, in excrements. The problem is, it is easily dissolved and then flows into the sea, so deposits at the surface do not exist except in arid areas. The desert in the norther part of Chile is probably the driest desert on the planet, a result of the main winds, the mountains and the cold currents in the sea. So the potassium was actually on the surface and was mined in a huge open cast. Then purification was necessary by dissolving it in water, filtering and cooking it, and remove calcium and magnesium with potassium oxide.

Description

Museo de Sitio Oficinas Salitreras Humberstone y Santa Laura (Humberstone and Santa Laura Saltpetre Works Site Museum) is quite long, and generally it is shortened as Museo del Salitre (Saltpeter Museum). It is dedicated to two important sites in the Tarapacá region, 35 kilometers east of Iquique. One is named Santiago Humberstone and the other Santa Laura. Both are saltpeter works, built in the middle of the driest desert of the world. Both are a testimony to the Saltpeter Age between the late 19th and mid 20th century, a sort of mining which is quite exceptional, and more like a factory than an actual mine. The mining of saltpeter in open casts in huge amounts became a fundamental element for the development of intensive agriculture worldwide and, especially, in Europe and the USA. As a result it was an important part of the export trade of Chile.

Salitrera Santiago Humberstone was originally called La Palma, and is located at the motorway junction between Motorway 5 Panamericana and 16 to Iquique. The town had a population of around 3,500 inhabitants, and it was an artificial mining town constructed for the only purpuse to house the miners who were working at the salteter mine which starte at its northern border. Beneath the miners' houses, the church, school, theater, grocery store, hotel, market, swimming pool, and the huge plaza are preserved and can be visited. Among the houses different types can be visited, like housing for single workers, housing for married workers, housing for employees, housing for professionals, administration house, and the dentist's house. The factory is also open for visits including the power plant, electric workshop, railway workshop, foundry, smithy with chimney, and rubble cake.

Santa Laura is located only 1.6 km to the west and was home to a population of 871 inhabitants, of which 440 were workers. Here is it possible to observe the industrial process which produces non-organic natural fertilizer or sodium nitrate from saltpeter. The site has a central area with public buildings like administration house, market, soft drink factory, basketball court, and polyclinic. The industrial zone has the leaching plant, iodine house, locomotive workshop, power house, compressed air workshop, and the primary mills. Most of the of 19th century workers' housing are destroyed though, only the roads and the foundations still exist.

The mining started in 1872, both sites were founded by different companies, at this time the area still belonged to Peru. Much of the region was annexed by Chile after the War of the Pacific under the 1883 Treaty of Ancón. Both sites were quite successful, the saltpeter was sold all over the world. But this ended in 1929, as a result of the Great Depression. Then a second problem was the synthesis of ammonia by the Germans Fritz Haber and Carl Bosch. Sales recovered only very hesitantly after the slump, synthesis was not cheap either, but extraction and transport were more expensive. Both sites were practically bankrupt and were acquired by Compañía Salitrera de Tarapacá y Antofagasta (COSATAN). They renamed La Palma into Oficina Santiago Humberstone in honor of its founder James Thomas Humberstone. They were able to modernize production to make it competitive, and the site became the most successful saltpeter works in 1940. But finally, Humberstone became the most successful saltpeter works in 1940. The end was fast and final, the company went corrupt in 1958, the works were closed in 1960, and by 1970 the lost inhabitants were gone.

The Corporación Museo del Salitre (CMS) was created in 1999 by former inhabitants of the two mining towns and their descendants. The private, non-profit institution protects, restores and manages the Humberstone and Santa Laura Saltpeter Works. They also organize a yearly celebration for the former inhabitants in the third week of November, which is called Saltpeter Week. The two sites are open air museum and open for visits all year. They are the best preserved and most representative remains of over 200 saltpeter works which once existed in the area.