Sewell is an uninhabited
Chile
Chile, officially the Republic of Chile, is a country in the western part of South America. It is the southernmost country in the world, and the closest to Antarctica, occupying a long and narrow strip of land between the Andes to the eas ...
an mining town located on the slopes of the
Andes
The Andes, Andes Mountains or Andean Mountains (; ) are the longest continental mountain range in the world, forming a continuous highland along the western edge of South America. The range is long, wide (widest between 18°S – 20°S ...
in the commune of
Machalí
Machalí is a Chilean commune and city in Cachapoal Province, O'Higgins Region.
Demographics
According to the 2002 census of the National Statistics Institute, Machalí spans an area of and has 28,628 inhabitants (14,297 men and 14,331 wome ...
in
Cachapoal Province
Cachapoal Province ( es, Provincia de Cachapoal) is one of three provinces of the central Chilean region of O'Higgins (VI). Its capital is the city of Rancagua (pop. 214,344).
Geography and demography
According to the 2002 census by the Nation ...
,
Libertador General Bernardo O'Higgins Region, at an altitude of between 2,000 and 2,250 metres. In 2006, it was designated as a
UNESCO World Heritage Site
A World Heritage Site is a landmark or area with legal protection by an international convention administered by the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO). World Heritage Sites are designated by UNESCO for ...
.
It is known as a former
company town
A company town is a place where practically all stores and housing are owned by the one company that is also the main employer. Company towns are often planned with a suite of amenities such as stores, houses of worship, schools, markets and re ...
, developed by
Braden Copper Company
Braden Copper Company was an American company that controlled the El Teniente copper mine in Chile until 1967 when its copper holdings were nationalized.
History
Braden Copper Company was founded on 18 June 1904 by E.W. Nash, Barton Sewell, Willi ...
for housing the workers (and their families) associated with the operations of
El Teniente
El Teniente ("The Lieutenant") is an underground copper mine located in the Chilean Andes, above mean sea level. It is in the commune of Machalí in Cachapoal Province, Libertador General Bernardo O'Higgins Region, near the company town of ...
, the largest underground copper mine in the world.
At the town's peak in 1960, some 16,000 people lived here. After the government acquired a majority interest in the mine, and even more so after copper mining was nationalized in 1971, the government company moved workers into the valley. It built the Copper Highway to provide commuting access for them to the mine and related operations. While some buildings were demolished in the 1980s, others have now been renovated for contract workers, and restored as part of preservation of this historic site. The Chilean government designated it in 1998 as a National Monument.
History
The town was founded in 1906 by the
Braden Copper Company
Braden Copper Company was an American company that controlled the El Teniente copper mine in Chile until 1967 when its copper holdings were nationalized.
History
Braden Copper Company was founded on 18 June 1904 by E.W. Nash, Barton Sewell, Willi ...
as a company town to support extracting
copper
Copper is a chemical element with the symbol Cu (from la, cuprum) and atomic number 29. It is a soft, malleable, and ductile metal with very high thermal and electrical conductivity. A freshly exposed surface of pure copper has a pink ...
from the
El Teniente
El Teniente ("The Lieutenant") is an underground copper mine located in the Chilean Andes, above mean sea level. It is in the commune of Machalí in Cachapoal Province, Libertador General Bernardo O'Higgins Region, near the company town of ...
mine.
It was named after the company's first president, Barton Sewell.
During the
Great Depression
The Great Depression (19291939) was an economic shock that impacted most countries across the world. It was a period of economic depression that became evident after a major fall in stock prices in the United States. The economic contagio ...
, the Braden Copper Company became a subsidiary of
Kennecott Copper Company
Kennecott Utah Copper LLC (KUC), a division of Rio Tinto Group, is a mining, smelting, and refining company. Its corporate headquarters are located in South Jordan, Utah. Kennecott operates the Bingham Canyon Mine, one of the largest open-pit c ...
. In 1917 the foundry or smelter was moved from Sewell to Caletones, where another town developed around it.
Originally male workers lived in shared housing at Sewell, called ''colectivos''. Later family housing was added. Playgrounds, plazas, shops, and a movie theatre were later developed. Pedestrians walked up and down vertical staircases to reach the different levels of the town. Streets ran horizontally and were unpaved because of severe winter conditions. There were no cars. On the west-facing side of Cerro Negro, a camp for foreign personnel developed.
Ore was taken down the mountainside to
Graneros
Graneros is a Chilean commune and city in Cachapoal Province, O'Higgins Region.
Deportes
Graneros se conoce como unas de las candidatas a ganar la copa de la región Libertador Bernardo Ohiggins
Tiene su Estadio renovado,El Estadio Miguel Riffo ...
, where it was loaded onto railway cars. The
narrow gauge
A narrow-gauge railway (narrow-gauge railroad in the US) is a railway with a track gauge narrower than standard . Most narrow-gauge railways are between and .
Since narrow-gauge railways are usually built with tighter curves, smaller structu ...
railway
Rail transport (also known as train transport) is a means of transport that transfers passengers and goods on wheeled vehicles running on rails, which are incorporated in tracks. In contrast to road transport, where the vehicles run on a p ...
that connected Sewell to the nearby town of
Rancagua, away, was under construction in 1906 and was completed in 1911.
[Sewell, also known as El Teniente, Chile](_blank)
/ref> The total distance covered was with an elevation change of .[
By 1915 a hospital, a fire department, and a social club had been built and established in Sewell.][ The buildings and homes were made out of ]timber
Lumber is wood that has been processed into dimensional lumber, including beams and planks or boards, a stage in the process of wood production. Lumber is mainly used for construction framing, as well as finishing (floors, wall panels, w ...
, and painted bright colors such as yellow, red and blue. At its peak in 1960, it had more than 16,000 inhabitants. By 1918 the town housed more than 12,000 people.[
Sewell is known as the "City of Staircases". The town was built on terrain too steep for wheeled vehicles, around a large central staircase, called the Escalara Central, which was built from the railway station. All supplies had to be brought into the city via a narrow gauge railroad.] ''Pueblo Hundido'' contained the living quarters, while below the ore body was ''El Establecimiento,'' which contained the concentrator, hydroelectric plant, and a tramway.[
On 8 August 1944, 102 people died in an avalanche when the slopes above the town failed.][ Additional, ever-present threats to the city included earthquakes, avalanches and explosions from mine operations.]
In June 1945, 355 workers died in El Teniente
El Teniente ("The Lieutenant") is an underground copper mine located in the Chilean Andes, above mean sea level. It is in the commune of Machalí in Cachapoal Province, Libertador General Bernardo O'Higgins Region, near the company town of ...
mine from carbon monoxide poisoning
Carbon monoxide poisoning typically occurs from breathing in carbon monoxide (CO) at excessive levels. Symptoms are often described as " flu-like" and commonly include headache, dizziness, weakness, vomiting, chest pain, and confusion. Large ...
, and another 747 were injured, because smoke spread through the mine from a fire outside. This disaster resulted in the government developing and adopting more safety regulations.[
]
Decline
In 1967 the Kennecott Copper Corporation relinquished its sole ownership of the site when the Chilean government bought a 51% stake in the company. At this time, many people were moved from Sewell to Rancagua. The government built the Copper Highway
Copper is a chemical element with the symbol Cu (from la, cuprum) and atomic number 29. It is a soft, malleable, and ductile metal with very high thermal and electrical conductivity. A freshly exposed surface of pure copper has a pinkish-or ...
for their commuting to the mine and related operations.
In 1971 the mine was nationalised
Nationalization (nationalisation in British English) is the process of transforming privately-owned assets into public assets by bringing them under the public ownership of a national government or state. Nationalization usually refers to p ...
by the Allende government. In 1977, the state-owned CODELCO
Codelco (''Corporación Nacional'' ''del'' ''Cobre de Chile'' or, in English, the National Copper Corporation of Chile) is a Chilean state-owned copper mining company. It was formed in 1976 from foreign-owned copper companies that were nationalise ...
(Corporación Nacional del Cobre de Chile) started moving more families out of Sewell into the valley. The company town had been active for more than seven decades, and supported the construction and exploitation of the largest underground mine in the world. CODELCO began demolition of buildings in the town.
Preservation
Numerous supporters argued to have the town preserved because of its significance to Chilean history and its unusual site in the Andes. Demolition was halted at the end of the 1980s. In 1998 the Chilean Government declared Sewell a National Monument. In 1999 Chile's College of Architects declared Sewell to be one of the country's 10 most important urban works. Nine books have been written about life at Sewell. In 2006 UNESCO
The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization is a List of specialized agencies of the United Nations, specialized agency of the United Nations (UN) aimed at promoting world peace and security through international coope ...
designated it as a World Heritage Site
A World Heritage Site is a landmark or area with legal protection by an international convention administered by the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO). World Heritage Sites are designated by UNESCO for ...
, based on Chile's nomination and assessment of its significance.
During the 1980s some of the remaining buildings were remodeled to house thousands of contract workers at the mine, but they were later moved out. Other buildings have been restored in order to preserve the nature of the original town. Some 50 restored buildings remain, and a history museum
A museum ( ; plural museums or, rarely, musea) is a building or institution that cares for and displays a collection of artifacts and other objects of artistic, cultural, historical, or scientific importance. Many public museums make th ...
is housed in one of the structures.[http://www.sewell.cl/html/historia/fr_historia.html]
CODELCO uses several buildings for offices. Now only the basic company facilities required for mining remain in the town. The area is not accessible by private vehicles. The government allows visitors only through tour operator
A tour operator is a business that typically combines and organizes accommodations, meals, sightseeing and transportation components, in order to create a package tour. They advertise and produce brochures to promote their products, holidays a ...
s from Santiago
Santiago (, ; ), also known as Santiago de Chile, is the capital and largest city of Chile as well as one of the largest cities in the Americas. It is the center of Chile's most densely populated region, the Santiago Metropolitan Region, whos ...
and Rancagua.
See also
* Rancagua
* Chilean nationalization of copper
*List of towns in Chile
This article contains a list of towns in Chile.
A town is defined by Chile's National Statistics Institute (INE) as an urban entity possessing between 2,001 and 5,000 inhabitants—or between 1,001 and 2,000 inhabitants if 50% or more of its po ...
* La Rinconada, Peru
References
External links
Snow in Sewelll, Chile
Bonnie Hamre website
Panoramas of Sewell
Official Site
{{Authority control
Former populated places in Chile
Ghost towns in South America
Populated places established in 1904
World Heritage Sites in Chile
Buildings and structures in O'Higgins Region
Tourist attractions in O'Higgins Region