Maria Elena

Maria Elena was founded in 1926 by the Guggenheim interests to work the caliche of the pampa by a new leaching process, laid out on the pattern of the British flag around a central plaza with a theatre, a market and company housing, and it is the only nitrate town in the world still inhabited and still connected to the industry - every other oficina in the Atacama is a ruin or a museum. Production has shrunk drastically and so has the population, and the town has the emptied feel that comes with that: streets of company houses with a fraction of them occupied. A local museum covers the saltpeter era and the life of the pampinos.

History

The town is named after Mary Ellen Comdon, wife of Elias Cappelen, the first manager of the nitrate works, which were first called Coya Norte. They were built on land bought from the Treasury in 1924 and opened in 1926 with the Guggenheim brothers' new extraction process, the streets laid out on the pattern of the British flag; together with the Pedro de Valdivia works, built in 1931, they made more than a million tons of saltpetre a year, and when Pedro de Valdivia closed in 1996 María Elena became the last working nitrate town in Chile and took in many of its families (Wikipedia, María Elena, Chile).

The main sights

• The last inhabited nitrate town - founded 1926, still connected to the trade.
• A street plan drawn on the Union Jack - round a plaza with theatre and market.
• A shrinking population - streets with houses standing empty.
• A local saltpeter museum - the pampino history.

When to go

Year round. Half a day.

Before you go

This is a working town in decline, not a heritage site - there is no tourist infrastructure and little to do. Dust and heat are constant. The museum keeps limited hours. The contrast with the preserved ruins at Humberstone is the point of visiting.

Nearby

Humberstone and Santa Laura are north; Quillagua is up route 5.

Key facts