Sewell, Chile

Sewell is a city in Chile, in the Andes in the Región del Libertador General Bernardo O'Higgins. It lies about 60 km east of Rancagua. Until 1960 it was an economically important city in the copper mining industry with more than 10,000 inhabitants. Today it is called a ghost town.

Formation

On April 29, 1905 acquired the U.S. Braden Copper Company by the Chilean government, the mining rights for the El Teniente copper mine, was that, although very productive, leave due to their inhospitable location in the Andes southeast of Santiago de Chile at the end of the 19th century had.

First, let put Braden Copper roads and railroad tracks for the removal of copper. Then they set up a commercial office in Graneros and various camp for the miners in La Compañía.

History

Between 1905 and 1906 a large ore mill was built on a mountain slope opposite the pit, which was able to process 250 tons of ore daily. The mined ore was transported by a conveyor cable car from the pit directly to the mill. The energy for operation of this conveyor system and the mill was generated in a separate, also built by Braden Copper power plant. Originally the miners lived in small camps in the vicinity of the mine until they were merged in March 1915 to an industrial city Sewell.

Since 1998, Sewell is a National Monument of Chile since 2006 and a World Heritage Site by UNESCO.

Eponym

The city was named in honor of the late New York in the same year chairman of the U.S. Braden Copper Company, Barton Sewell, who himself never was in Chile, but William Braden's idea to invest in El Teniente, had always supported. The following copper boom town, featuring a stunning for its time, Chilean comfort conditions, such as cinema and bowling alley offered its residents grew.

Decline

With the decline of the copper boom in the 1960s also Sewell lost more and more important and residents. Today it is a ghost town and only houses a museum after all, heatable with artifacts from the history of the city.