English: The entrance to the British Cemetery founded in 1876 for British and other foreign workers and their families associated with the saltpeter mines and nitrate production facilities in the area. The grave of British-born chemical engineer ‘Don Santiago’ James Thomas Humberstone (1850-1939) is next to the tall tamarugo tree on the left.

In 1872 Humbertstone founded the nitrate works La Palma (later renamed Santiago Humberstone), one of many processing saltpeter from the largest saltpeter deposit in the world in the Atacama Desert. Production of the fertilizer sodium nitrate generated great wealth for Chile. The development early in the 20th century of a means to extract nitrate from the nitrogen in the air created a competitive alternative, however. While modernization efforts made Santiago Humberstone the most successful natural saltpeter works by 1940, the business could not be sustained and was abandoned in 1960, putting 3,000 people out of work.

Santiago Humberstone and neighboring Santa Laura were declared national monuments in 1970 and jointly a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 2005.

On Google Earth: British Cemetery 19°32'56.28"S, 69°56'47.56"W Santiago Humberstone 20°12'31.03"S, 69°47'43.60"W

Santa Laura 20°12'42.75"S, 69°48'45.09"W