Sewell is a populated

Chile Chile, officially the Republic of Chile, is a country in western South America. It is the southernmost country in the world and the closest to Antarctica, stretching along a narrow strip of land between the Andes, Andes Mountains and the Paci ...

an mining town located on the slopes of the

Andes The Andes ( ), Andes Mountains or Andean Mountain Range (; ) are the List of longest mountain chains on Earth, longest continental mountain range in the world, forming a continuous highland along the western edge of South America. The range ...

in the commune of Machalí in Cachapoal Province, 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 World Heritage Sites are landmarks and areas with legal protection under an treaty, international treaty administered by UNESCO for having cultural, historical, or scientific significance. The sites are judged to contain "cultural and natural ...

. It is known as a former

company town A company town is a place where all or most of the stores and housing in the town are owned by the same company that is also the main employer. Company towns are often planned with a suite of amenities such as stores, houses of worship, schoo ...

, developed by Braden Copper Company for housing the workers (and their families) associated with the operations of El Teniente, 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 as a company town to support extracting

copper Copper is a chemical element; it has symbol Cu (from Latin ) 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-orang ...

from the El Teniente mine. It was named after the company's first president, Barton Sewell. During the

Great Depression The Great Depression was a severe global economic downturn from 1929 to 1939. The period was characterized by high rates of unemployment and poverty, drastic reductions in industrial production and international trade, and widespread bank and ...

, the Braden Copper Company became a subsidiary of Kennecott Copper Company. 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, 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 (distance between the rails) narrower than . Most narrow-gauge railways are between and . Since narrow-gauge railways are usually built with Minimum railw ...

railway Rail transport (also known as train transport) is a means of transport using wheeled vehicles running in railway track, tracks, which usually consist of two parallel steel railway track, rails. Rail transport is one of the two primary means of ...

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
/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 uniform and useful sizes (dimensional lumber), including beams and planks or boards. Lumber is mainly used for construction framing, as well as finishing (floors, wall panels, window frames). ...

, 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 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 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 contrasts with ...

by the Allende government. In 1977, the state-owned

CODELCO The National Copper Corporation of Chile (), abbreviated as Codelco, is a Chilean state-owned mining company and the largest copper mining company in the world. It was formed in 1976 from foreign-owned copper companies that were nationalised in 1 ...

(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 (UNESCO ) is a List of specialized agencies of the United Nations, specialized agency of the United Nations (UN) with the aim of promoting world peace and International secur ...

designated it as a

World Heritage Site World Heritage Sites are landmarks and areas with legal protection under an treaty, international treaty administered by UNESCO for having cultural, historical, or scientific significance. The sites are judged to contain "cultural and natural ...

, 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 is an institution dedicated to displaying or Preservation (library and archive), preserving culturally or scientifically significant objects. Many museums have exhibitions of these objects on public display, and some have private colle ...

is housed in one of the structures. 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 lodging, accommodations, meals, sightseeing and transportation components, in order to create a package tour. They advertise and produce brochures to promote their products, holi ...

s from

Santiago Santiago (, ; ), also known as Santiago de Chile (), is the capital and largest city of Chile and one of the largest cities in the Americas. It is located in the country's central valley and is the center of the Santiago Metropolitan Regi ...

and Rancagua.

Climate

Due to its elevation, Sewell has a

warm-summer mediterranean climate A Mediterranean climate ( ), also called a dry summer climate, described by Köppen and Trewartha as ''Cs'', is a temperate climate type that occurs in the lower mid-latitudes (normally 30 to 44 north and south latitude). Such climates typic ...

(Csb, according to the Köppen climate classification), as at least 4 months see an average temperature above 10 °C (50 °F), having dry, moderate summers and cool, wet (sometimes snowy) winters.

References

External links