Now an uninhabited ghost town, Sewell was once a thriving mining center. The town is situated on the slopes of the Andes, in Chile where El Teniente, the world’s largest underground copper mine, is located. Sewell was founded at the beginning of the 20th century by a private American mining company to house the workers and their families so it served as a company town. It was named after the company’s first president Barton Sewell.
At its peak in 1960, about 16,000 people were dwelling in Sewell. In the beginning, there were only male workers. After a while, the workers’ families moved to the town as well. Plazas, playgrounds, a cinema, a hospital, and shops were built. The dwellers walked up and down vertical stairs to reach the different parts of the town since the town’s geography made it almost impossible to use cars. For that reason, the moniker ”City of the Stairs” was given to the town.
In 1971, the government nationalized copper mining and the government company moved the workers and their families into the valley and built a highway to provide a commute for the workers. After that, the population of the town started to decline. People went against the total demolition of the town because of its importance to Chilean history and for its unusual spot in the Andes.
While some of the buildings were demolished, others have now been renovated and/or restored to preserve the historical texture of the site. In 1988, the Chilean government designated the site as a National Monument. In 2006, UNESCO declared it as World Heritage Site.
