Fang Inca Rally: Humberstone

Humberstone, A True Ghost Town:

Once a thriving Saltpeter mine, now a ghost town and museum, Humberstone was "Originally founded as the "Peru Nitrate Company", establishing the works of "La Palma". Both works grew quickly, becoming busy towns characterized by lovely buildings in the English style.

The Saltpeter industry transformed the lives of many Chilean people and sent them to war over "White Gold"

In the late 19th and early 20th Centuries, almost all the saltpeter in the world came from the Atacama Desert.

• Saltpeter is also known as 'white gold' and was in huge demand in the industrializing countries of Europe, which needed fertilizer to help grow food. More Nitrogen industry info click here

• Humberstone was one of dozens of saltpeter towns, all of them stuck out in the vast and inhospitable Atacama.

• In the early 1870's many of the other saltpeter towns belonged to Bolivia, although most of the companies that operated in the area were Chilean, backed by British investment.

• In 1878, Bolivia increased their taxes on saltpeter and within weeks Chile and Bolivia were at war.

• The War of the Pacific lasted four years and claimed thousands of lives but eventually the Chileans won.

• When World War I broke out, the British blockaded exports of saltpeter to Germany which prompted the country to look for alternatives for the commonly used product.

• The invention of a synthetic substitute that could be used to make fertilizer was one of the major reasons behind the collapse of the once flourishing industry.