Humberstone and Santa Laura Saltpeter Works

In the waterless pampa of northern Chile, saltpeter works processed the largest nitrate deposit on Earth, shipping fertilizer that transformed farmland across the Americas and Europe. From 1880, workers from Chile, Peru and Bolivia spent over 60 years in company towns like these two, forging the distinct pampinos culture — its own speech, its solidarity, and a pioneering fight for social justice. UNESCO inscribed Humberstone and Santa Laura in 2005, adding them to the Danger List to aid their fragile structures.