Humberstone

I thought tonight I would transport you there with my beautiful words, as I'm known for, so we can take a visit of some of our world's most haunted locations.

Starting with South America, the first up we have is Humberstone, which is

in the Atacama Desert in Chile.

Humberstone and its sister camp, Santa Laura, were once thriving nitrate boom towns carved into the Atacama Desert.

The Atacama is where the Nazca Lines are, correct?

I don't know about that.

peace, Eric Van Dan again.

So their company-built enclaves, where thousands worked, endured the brutal saltpeter industry.

It's important to note that this dramatic boom and bust cycle isn't limited to North America.

If you want to see monuments to immense, fleeting, almost absurd wealth, you have to look at Kolmanskop in Namibia and Humberstone in Chile.

Kolmanskap is wild.

It was built in the Namib Desert in the early 1900s for one reason.

The right support.

It is a famous site for photographers because the massive sand dunes have literally poured through the doorways and windows, burying the ballrooms in sand.

Humberstone in the Atacama Desert of Chile followed the exact same trajectory.

But instead of diamonds, it was built on saltpeter sodium nitrate.