Heritage sites, Archaeological discoveries, History of Archaeology

Sewell Mining Town

Location

Province of Cachapoal

Country

Chile

Year of Research

2006

Culture

located at 2,000 m in the Andes, 60 km to the east of Rancagua, in an atmosphere marked by extremes of climate, Sewell Mining Town was built by the Braden Copper company in 1905 to house workers at what was to become the world’s largest underground copper mine, El Teniente.
It is excellent example of the company towns that were born in many distant parts of the world from the fusion of local labour and income from an industrialized nation, to mine and process high-value natural resources.
The town was built on a terrain too steep for wheeled vehicles about a large central staircase rising from the railway station.
Along its route formal squares of irregular shape with ornamental trees and plants constituted the main public places or squares of the town.
The buildings coating the streets are timber, often painted in vivid green, yellow, red and blue.
At its climax Sewell numbered 15,000 inhabitants, but was largely abandoned in the 1970s.