Abandoned villages in the Atacama Desert, Chile

Puquios (3): p. 1 - p. 2 - p. 3 - p. 4  - Railroad -  Sofía Mine

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The ruins of Puquios:

Puquios was for a long time the last civilized outpost in front of the desert. The mines of Sofía, Flor de Puquios, Tres Puntas, Dulcinea and many others guaranteed safe growth. Around 1849, promising coal deposits were discovered in the neighboring mountains of "La Ternera" [see here]. A big problem during this time was the supply of fuel to the furnaces. The coal had to come from Lota (near Concepción) or further afield. The alternative, firewood, was very inefficient, and the wood was quickly becoming scarce in the desert. In this context, a nearby coal deposit would have been an important milestone. Unfortunately, the occurrence in the "La Ternera" later proved quantitatively and qualitatively uneconomic.

Puquios never had the fama of a Chañarcillo or Tres Puntas, but was equally important in the Atacama region's mining history.
Copper mining, in general, has always been important but has never created a gold rush atmosphere like silver mining, which attracts an immediate wealth of miners involved. Copper mining was relatively solid, with not so large price fluctuations and more moderate gain but with the mines' longer maturities.

In the "Guía América de Sur (1910/1912)" [here] is still the municipality Puquios listed and a lot of shops and shops called. For example, Conrado Aguirre, Fréres Délard, Guillermo Grossi, Francisco Olmos and others. Also, there was a barber and alcohol sale.