Original subtitles

[narrator] A covert Pacific site

claims the lives of thousands of U.S. Marines.

[Lynette] They were angry

and they were fighting

harder than they'd ever fought before.

[narrator] A weapon of war

turns into a vital center of healing.

[Alicia] This place was armed and prepared

for a sea battle,

but it ended up fighting a very different war.

[narrator] And an imperialist prison

becomes a hotbed of revolution.

becomes a hotbed of revolution.

[Sascha] Getting sent here

was a perfect opportunity

for a young communist activist.

[narrator] Decaying relics...

ruins of lost worlds...

sites haunted by the past...

their secrets waiting to be revealed.

[narrator] Peleliu,

a tiny island in the western Pacific,

its tranquility at odds with a hostile history.

It's this beautiful coral island...

covered in jungle palms.

[narrator] But the creeping vegetation

conceals remnants of an ominous infrastructure.

[Lynette] There's even now...

the debris of warfare.

Tanks, amphibious tractors,

guns and gun emplacements.

[Geoff] You notice that

what looks to be an airstrip,

has been carved out of the jungle.

[narrator] And below ground, there's more.

[Dougal] A closer look reveals

quite a lot of ravines and hollows,

almost dotted with caves.

[Lynette] And in them, you can see

[Lynette] And in them, you can see

evidence of past occupation,

the archaeology of war.

This place was known for a time as "hell on earth".

[narrator] Des Matsutaro is a local historian,

whose ancestors witnessed

the destruction unleashed here.

[Des] This island was devastated beyond...

[Des] This island was devastated beyond...

any one of my people's imagination,

'cause we've never seen destruction like this

in our lives.

[narrator] The airstrip

cutting through the heart of this island

is the first clue to what went on here.

[Dougal] Here, we've got an island

that's relatively low in form

and it has some areas

which are flat enough to construct an airfield.

And so, it became a very strategic point

in this part of the Pacific.

[narrator] Next to the airfield,

one ruin stands out.

one ruin stands out.

It looks like some kind of control center.

But it wasn't the local people

running the operation here.

[Geoff] There's a headquarters building

very much in the Japanese imperial style,

very grand in size.

Clearly, this was a place that was going to harbor

a lot of Japanese naval

and military personnel.

[Des] Not only was it a place for them to do their work,

there was areas of a living quarters that they had here.

This building also has a nerve center,

where the high-ranking officials

had their top secret and sensitive materials inside.

[narrator] These scarred remains date back

to the Second World War.

By 1944,

the U.S. Marines were fighting their way

through the Japanese controlled islands

in the western Pacific.

Peleliu was their next target.

They're just like, "Well, it's probably gonna be easy,

so let's just do it."

[Lynette] They assumed that the Japanese

would do the same thing they always did

and try to stop invaders on the beach.

[narrator] But this time,

the Japanese island defense would be different.

0830, September 15th...

the Marines begin the agonizingly slow journey

the Marines begin the agonizingly slow journey

towards the beach in amphibious vehicles.

[Des] We're at Orange Beach,

where the American began

their invasion onto this island.

It was highly defended

due to the fact that this beach

is actually the shortest distance

between the water and the actual runway,

which was the main objective.

[narrator] By the end of the first day,

the U.S. Marines had taken the landing beaches.

the U.S. Marines had taken the landing beaches.

But it took a further week of fierce fighting

in unbearable temperatures

to secure the airfield.

So, we've got two American rounds

that were lodged into this column here.

You could see by the trajectory where it went in.

It came from my left side

and that's where the landing beaches are at.

So, it does show, the advancements and the movements

of American forces coming

of American forces coming

further into Peleliu island.

[Lynette] The 1st Marine Division...

managed to take...

the airfield on Peleliu Island

comparatively quickly.

[narrator] It appeared that victory was in sight.

But aerial intelligence

collected before the invasion

had failed to spot a key detail.

[Dougal] Part of the problem with identifying

a lot of the features of the island from above

is when you have thick vegetation,

you can hide sheer cliffs,

you can hide quite a lot of the topography

under a blanket of green.

[narrator] And the Japanese defenders

had made the most of Peleliu's hidden geography.

[Dougal] It's made out of predominantly

ancient coral reef limestone

that dissolves into caves

and natural ravines.

and natural ravines.

And actually, it's quite a soft rock.

You can actually build your own defenses

into the mountain.

[narrator] It had been impossible

for U.S. intelligence to identify the extent

of the massive Japanese defense network

hidden below ground.

[Des] These cave site that we have here in Peleliu...

there's about 300 to 400 of them.

They took about ten months to develop

and construct these caves.

Many of the caves were also dug out

Many of the caves were also dug out

by local labor as well.

Prior to the invasion,

the Japanese had evacuated

all the local men off this island.

And due to the fact that

they didn't want any of the local men

to go over to the U.S. side,

and reveal the locations of these caves.

[narrator] The Japanese could control

the entire defense of Peleliu

from below ground.

[Des] The Japanese were hunkered in within this ridge.

Many Japanese men had lived and stayed,

Many Japanese men had lived and stayed,

uh, in these caves,

very harsh conditions.

Some of these caves

were small enough for one person,

his gear and some supplies.

Many Americans called that a sniper cave,

or a foxhole.

Other caves are actually much bigger,

and they would connect with other caves

and interlock and form a network of caves,

up to a dozen or so entrances.

[narrator] And without knowing

[narrator] And without knowing

where the caves were located,

the U.S. Marines were walking into a death trap.

[narrator] By late 1944,

the U.S. Marine Corps had taken

the Japanese controlled airfield

on the remote Pacific Island of Peleliu.

But the Japanese commander,

Colonel Kunio Nakagawa,

was not about to give up without a fight.

He had strategically hidden his men

in an intricate defense system

in an intricate defense system

built into the island's high ground.

[Geoff] The Marines get ashore,

take the airstrip,

but then they're pounded from this central height,

this big, massive that overlooks the island.

[Lynette] The Japanese defense was designed

to pound fire down...

into preregistered positions

where they knew the Americans

would have to come.

[narrator] To fully control Peleliu,

the U.S. Marines needed to take the high ground.

the U.S. Marines needed to take the high ground.

[Lynette] The Americans called that

Bloody Nose Ridge...

'cause the 1st Marine Division...

they went up there and they got a bloody nose.

[Geoff] The battle for Bloody Nose Ridge

was just absolutely ferocious.

For the Marines,

it was having to fight this deadly adversary

that had essentially entombed himself

inside this cliff base.

And he had to be dug out,

And he had to be dug out,

and he was not gonna surrender.

[Lynette] What it came down to

was grunts with rifles,

mortars and guns.

[narrator] Peleliu's network of caves and tunnels

meant that the Marines

could never be sure where the enemy was.

[Geoff] American soldiers would be

running up an American flag,

and then they would smell...

Japanese rice cookers

underneath them

underneath them

as the Japanese were still installed

in these fortified caverns under their feet.

[narrator] After nearly two months

of grinding their way

up Bloody Nose Ridge...

the U.S. forces were finally closing in on victory.

[Geoff] The Japanese commander on the island

transmits a last message to Tokyo saying,

you know, "All is lost,

the island has fallen".

And then, he and his staff commit suicide.

[Des] This is where they found the body

of Colonel Kunio Nakagawa.

When the Americans came to this part of the island

and found his body,

that's when they declared

the battle of Peleliu over.

[narrator] But for some,

the conflict was not done.

[Lynette] Two years

after World War Two was over,

a Japanese official

had to come to Peleliu...

had to come to Peleliu...

to prove to...

the remaining Japanese soldiers

that the war was really over,

that they could put their guns down and go home.

[narrator] More than 12,000

U.S. and Japanese soldiers

lost their lives in the ferocious battle for Peleliu...

and many more were injured.

[Geoff] After the war, the Americans calculated that,

so good were the Japanese defenses,

that it took 1,500 rounds of bullets,

grenades or artillery

to kill a single Japanese defender.

[narrator] And when the locals

returned to the island...

it was unrecognizable.

[Des] My people were asked by the Americans

to bring in fruits and vegetables to replant here,

bring back coconuts, bring back papayas,

bring back coconuts, bring back papayas,

bring back bananas to replant

because the island was...

[vocalizes bombing] ...flattened.

[narrator] In the icy waters

that surround St. Petersburg, Russia,

is a marooned, oddly shaped structure.

[Rob] It's got two long sides

that are both rounded off at the end.

that are both rounded off at the end.

It looks a bit like a kidney bean in shape.

[Sascha] It's made of solid brick and concrete,

and the outside is an ominous black.

[narrator] But inside, it's a work of art.

[Rob] There's this steel staircase that's rusting away,

but it's exquisitely formed.

This place was not built in a hurry,

and it wasn't built on a budget either.

[narrator] Further in,

things take a chilling turn.

things take a chilling turn.

[Alicia] The inside of this building is empty,

almost as if it's been stripped or sterilized.

[narrator] This imposing structure

is designed to intimidate.

But it's what the eye can't see

that holds the secrets of this site.

[Alicia] This place was armed and prepared

for a sea battle,

but it ended up fighting a very different war.

[narrator] So, how did this sterile shell

come to save lives instead of taking them?

come to save lives instead of taking them?

[narrator] Russian archaeologist

Sergey Solovyev

heads out to explore

an eerie fortification

that dates back almost 200 years.

[Sergey] At the start of the 19th century,

they needed to create modern defensive structures

to protect St. Petersburg.

to protect St. Petersburg.

[narrator] The deep waters of the Gulf of Finland

have long left Russia open to attack.

[Rob] At one end is Russia's

old capital city of St. Petersburg

and at the opposite end,

are Europe's other great powers:

France, Germany, Britain.

[narrator] And by the 1830s,

the Russians needed to build

a new fort in the Gulf itself

to keep their capital safe.

They had to create a complete artificial island

to accommodate this defensive structure.

[narrator] Building an island,

then the fort on top,

took seven years.

The result was the distinctively designed

Fort Alexander.

[Sergey] Both Russian

and European military forces

considered it to be an impregnable stronghold

with powerful artillery.

There were 103 guns in the casemates,

There were 103 guns in the casemates,

and 34 on the top layer,

which is open.

Military ships of the time

couldn't breach these defenses.

[narrator] But the guns

of the Tsar's imperious fortress

would never fire a single shot in battle.

Because by 1845,

soon after its completion,

Fort Alexander had become redundant.

[Rob] Military weaponry

was becoming so powerful

that the fort's walls

could no longer withstand

an enemy's shelling.

[narrator] But decades later,

the fort did see action

when Russia was attacked by an enemy

far more deadly than any navy.

[narrator] In the late 19th century,

a pandemic of the bubonic plague

was spreading across the world.

The plague had already ravaged parts of the globe

twice before.

In the 6th century

and in the 14th century.

This disease spread from country to country

through different ports.

At every port,

rats would escape from the ships,

but it was really their fleas that spread the disease.

[narrator] And by the 1890s,

with the growth of international trade,

the so-called Third Plague Pandemic was reaching its peak.

the so-called Third Plague Pandemic was reaching its peak.

[Rob] It had already reached parts of Europe

and was now knocking on Russia's door.

[Sergey] The Russian government was aware

of the importance of controlling the pandemic

because of the outbreaks in China and India,

near Russia's borders.

[Rob] The Russian government decides

they're going to study the disease in a lab...

have lots of scientists working with samples,

trying to find a vaccine.

trying to find a vaccine.

And, of course, they had the perfect place to do it.

[narrator] The isolated artificial island

of Fort Alexander,

with its high-level security,

was about to come into its own.

[Sergey] In 1897,

this place was chosen

to accommodate the plague research laboratory.

[narrator] The mighty fort

had to be repurposed

to contain the unseen enemy inside its walls.

to contain the unseen enemy inside its walls.

[Sergey] When the laboratory was created,

the fort was divided into two parts:

the right part was for infectious work,

the left part was kept clean.

[narrator] Within the infectious side of the fort,

the laboratory setup was scrupulous.

[Sergey] The laboratory was equipped

with the latest technology.

There was steam-heating...

gas and electric supplies...

designated research areas

and staff rooms.

[Sascha] The labs in their operation

were pretty sophisticated for the time.

And they have, you know, vials,

test tubes, lab coats.

[narrator] The first floor of the fort

had a series of laboratory facilities,

had a series of laboratory facilities,

libraries, conference rooms,

and something surprising.

[Sergey] This room was most probably used

as a stable for horses.

[narrator] Rodents, monkeys and reindeer

were also used for trials here.

[Alicia] They brought in animals to this fort,

so that they could infect them with the plague.

[Rob] There are photographs

of how they'd perform autopsies on the animals,

of how they'd perform autopsies on the animals,

pinning their legs back with wires.

It's gruesome stuff.

[narrator] The laboratories

extended to the fort's second floor.

[Alicia] They experimented

with different types of the disease.

They even made a dust that could be inhaled.

And in other instances,

they simply injected the specimen

into animals' windpipes.

[narrator] It was only a matter of time

before something went wrong.

before something went wrong.

[narrator] In an abandoned fort turned into

a plague laboratory,

19th-century Russian scientists

were carrying out experiments

that could cost them their lives.

[Rob] With all the lab's sophistication,

they still couldn't completely remove

the possibility of the disease escaping.

[narrator] The site reveals how the scientists

[narrator] The site reveals how the scientists

used the isolation of the fort's upper level

to deal with the unthinkable.

We're now on the third floor of the fort

where an infirmary was set up

in case any of the staff

became infected with the plague.

[narrator] Despite stringent safety measures,

they had to use this isolation unit at the start of 1904,

they had to use this isolation unit at the start of 1904,

when the plague laboratory's head doctor

contracted the plague and died.

Three years later,

the disease escaped again.

This time the esteemed epidemiologist

Lev Podlevsky

and his friend and colleague Dr. Schreiber

were on the front line.

When Schreiber developed symptoms of the plague,

Dr. Podlevsky rushed him up

to the dreaded third floor.

This is where Dr. Schreiber came when he fell ill.

[narrator] He died within three days

and with the body still contagious,

Dr. Podlevsky had to perform the autopsy.

[Sascha] Shortly after the post-mortem of his colleague,

Dr. Podlevsky started to feel

a burning sensation in his fingers.

a burning sensation in his fingers.

[narrator] But the researchers' sacrifices

were about to pay off.

[Sascha] Things looked grim for Dr. Podlevsky,

and his colleagues started administering

some of the antidotes

they'd been working on.

And in a few days,

it looked like they were starting to work.

[narrator] Podlevsky and the other scientists

had developed a cure.

He'd been given the anti-plague serum

developed here in this laboratory.

Within about 10 or 12 days,

Within about 10 or 12 days,

he started to feel better.

And he eventually recovered.

It was very fortunate that Dr. Podlevsky could be cured.

[narrator] As well as finding an antidote to the plague,

the fort scientists also worked successfully

on diseases such as tetanus,

typhoid and cholera.

But in 1917,

But in 1917,

the Russian Revolution brought the work

of the imperialist plague laboratory to an end.

With the antidote inaccessible to most,

the Third Plague Pandemic lived on

for the next four decades,

claiming 15 million lives

before petering out in 1959.

[narrator] Fort Alexander earned a reputation

not through firing and killing people,

but through saving lives.

And Sergey Solovyev wants to preserve it

to remember those who gave their lives to do so.

Today the fort is in a really bad condition

and needs a lot of restoration work.

[narrator] In the remote

Telega region of Romania

lies an imposing set of ruins.

[Jim] You come across the big steel gate...

leading to a building

that looks like something out of a Dickens novel.

[Dominic] There are also outside spaces

around the outer parts,

around the outer parts,

which are almost like courtyards or gardens.

[Sascha] It looks like a mansion or a wealthy home,

but once you get inside,

the story is completely different.

[Dominic] There are gaping holes in the roofs,

whole walls turned to rubble.

[narrator] A bizarre broken replica of the building itself

hints at its greater significance.

[Sascha] This ruined building set in motion

a chain of events that would change this country forever.

[narrator] This is Doftana Prison.

Scott Allsop studies this tattered site

which once filled Romanians with dread.

[Scott] Doftana, I've been surprised to find,

is not really remembered that much by many Romanians,

and yet the prison guards regarded this as, like,

the Bastille of Romania.

[narrator] The complex dates back to 1895,

but it wasn't until two decades later

that it came into its own.

What was happening in the early years of the Soviet Union

turned a lot of heads in Romania,

where a battle was brewing

between the monarchy and the communists.

[narrator] In 1924, under King Ferdinand,

the Government outlawed communism in Romania.

[Jim] He designated this location

[Jim] He designated this location

to become a prison

for political prisoners.

[narrator] By the mid-1920s,

around 300 political prisoners

were locked up in Doftana.

[Scott] The fact that there is a single place

where the burgeoning

Romanian Communist Party

was all placed together

is absolutely fascinating.

[Dominic] If you lock up together

a group of active, passionate

a group of active, passionate

political ideologues,

you're asking for trouble.

[narrator] In Romania in the 1930s,

the foreboding Doftana Prison

became a hotbed for revolution

when the country's young communists

were locked up here.

[Jim] They can develop their ideology,

they can indoctrinate other prisoners

into their ideology,

so that by the time they get out,

They are a much more disciplined force.

They are a much more disciplined force.

[narrator] The prisoners were even compiling

a communist newspaper

from within Doftana's walls.

[Sascha] The fact that they were able to do this

all under the noses of the guards

was amazing.

[narrator] The site reveals the ingenuity

of Doftana's prisoners.

So, in some of the cells in Doftana

there were heating pipes,

similar to this one back here.

similar to this one back here.

And as a way to communicate,

many of the communists

developed a tapping system

in order to send messages between cells

by using the heating system.

[Dominic] They used wooden bed slats

to pass pencils and documents through cell bars.

They even stitched makeshift bags

from bedding materials

to help pass around

their clandestine materials.

[narrator] But how did they get the newspaper out?

A nearby river might hold the answer.

Doftana is positioned on the hills just behind me,

and the storm drains

that were within the prison grounds,

ran down to this river.

And so, the newspaper

was sent down the storm drains

and ended up in this river

where they were collected by local party members.

The communists inside the walls

were absolutely determined to get their story out.

[Sascha] These were men

[Sascha] These were men

who believed in a political cause,

and they were willing to go to great risks

to try to bring that cause into reality.

[narrator] And the wide-reaching influence

of Doftana Prison didn't end there.

[Dominic] An extremely famous leader,

who's changed the course

of modern Romanian history forever,

was once held right here in Doftana.

[Scott] In 1936,

a new inmate was sentenced

a new inmate was sentenced

to two-years imprisonment

for communist activities.

[narrator] The name of this new arrival

was Nicolae Ceausescu.

[Scott] By the time Ceausescu was sent here to Doftana

at 18 years old,

he was already described

as a dangerous communist agitator.

[Dominic] Ceausescu was young, headstrong

and utterly captivated by communist ideology.

[Sascha] On his arrival there,

he would have been surrounded by

he would have been surrounded by

like-minded communist activists.

[narrator] The Monarchy was still in control,

but that was soon to end.

[Sascha] World War II completely changed

the landscape of Romania.

They were one of the most active allies of Nazi Germany.

[Jim] The Germans were finally pushed out by Soviet troops.

In the aftermath of the War,

the Soviets installed

the communist government in Romania.

the communist government in Romania.

[narrator] The man at the helm

was Gheorghe Gheorghiu-Dej,

a former Doftana inmate imprisoned with Ceausescu.

Following a series of earthquakes,

the newly installed communist government

closed the prison down

and repurposed it for its own glorification.

[Scott] It was opened as a museum

to effectively honor all of those founders

of Romanian communism who had been held here.

of Romanian communism who had been held here.

[narrator] The propaganda museum

even featured a scale model of the place itself.

Doftana was absolutely vital

to the communist leadership.

It was important that they were able to show

how Communism was effectively able

to conquer the bourgeois elements of society

that had preceded it.

We have evidence of leading communists from China

being brought on tours to Doftana

to prove how communism was able to overcome those obstacles.

to prove how communism was able to overcome those obstacles.

[narrator] When Gheorghiu-Dej died in 1965,

Ceausescu came to power.

[Jim] Ceausescu went from being a revered leader

to an incredibly feared dictator.

[Scott] As his time in office went on,

he became increasingly totalitarian

and violent against his own people.

Ceausescu's control

Ceausescu's control

was really summarized by the secret police

that he introduced into the country.

[Sascha] Ceausescu's Romania

is one of the worst examples in existence

of a truly totalitarian,

repressive communist dictatorship.

[narrator] Eventually,

the collapse of communism triggered

violent uprisings in Romania.

[Sascha] In 1989,

Ceausescu ordered his forces to open fire

Ceausescu ordered his forces to open fire

on anti-government demonstrators,

and this was just a step too far

for the Romanian people.

[Dominic] The armed forces revolted

and captured Ceausescu

before putting him on trial

and convicting him of mass murder.

Ceausescu's end came when he was shot

by a firing squad on Christmas Day.

[gunshot]

[narrator] Doftana Prison also fell from grace.

[Jim] No one was really interested in going back

to the prison as a kind of monument,

and it continued to decay and fall into disrepair.

[narrator] Today,

the authorities continue to leave the prison to rot.

[Sascha] The terrifying leaders that emerged from it

will long-remain a part of the Romanian consciousness.

[narrator] In the deep south of Chile,

a town frozen in time

sits at the edge of a crystal blue lake.

[Dougal] It doesn't really look like

your average lakeside resort.

[narrator] In one of the most

sparsely populated places on Earth,

are the remains of a once prosperous town.

[Lynette] There are shops and a school

[Lynette] There are shops and a school

and a football field.

And there is everything you'd want in a nice town,

it's just empty.

[Dougal] There's lots of abandoned,

kind of, rusting machinery.

There's clearly something that would have been being processed.

[narrator] A curious structure built into a mountain

could offer up some clues.

[Alicia] It's almost as if the building

has been draped into the hillside.

has been draped into the hillside.

[Dougal] I guess it's trying to use, in some way,

the geography that's already there, but why?

[narrator] Luis Casanova's father

bought this now deserted site

back in 1995.

[Luis] Well, the first time that I came here,

I was about ten-years-old.

I was about ten-years-old.

The feeling was like this place was alive.

[narrator] This is Puerto Cristal.

In Patagonia, in the Aysen region,

this deserted town seems to sit

at the end of the world.

[Lynette] 90 years ago,

there was almost nothing here...

until the first family moved in.

[narrator] Luis has studied the story of Puerto Cristal

[narrator] Luis has studied the story of Puerto Cristal

and knows of the tragedy

that befell its first settlers.

[Luis] The first family that lived here

was called the Inallao family.

They settled here

because they wanted to have a life,

uh, farming.

[narrator] Saturnino Inallao

arrived with his family in the 1930s.

[Lynette] They were homesteaders.

They wanted to farm this countryside.

They wanted to break this ground.

They wanted to break this ground.

They came to stake a claim

and make a life for themselves

in what they must have thought

was the wildest spot on earth.

[narrator] The Inallao family built a house

and started farming,

unaware of the vast riches below their feet.

[Alicia] One day,

one of the children in the Inallao family

discovered this odd-looking rock.

discovered this odd-looking rock.

And the father recognized

there was something unique about it.

[Lynette] It was gray, it was shiny, it was heavy.

And Saturnino took the rock to his neighbor

and asked him if he knew what it was.

[Dougal] The farmer then gave it to a supposed friend.

They went off and actually found out that,

potentially, there could have been

a fortune to be made.

The Inallao family now had the potential

The Inallao family now had the potential

to become millionaires

because of what they found on their property.

[Alicia] However,

the Inallao family would never see a cent of that.

[narrator] In the wilds of Chilean Patagonia

sits a ghost town,

where, in the 1930s,

one man and his family

had gone to follow their dreams.

A find on their land

promised to bring untold riches.

[Luis] They discovered that

this particular rock had over 60 percent of lead.

this particular rock had over 60 percent of lead.

[narrator] The mountainous terrain

was rich in zinc as well as lead.

[Dougal] Although you're not finding gold,

if you find lead and zinc in such amounts

that it becomes commercially viable

to distribute it around the world,

you can make a lot of money.

[narrator] But Saturnino Inallao

had made the mistake of asking

the businessman Silva Ormeno for help.

[Alicia] As soon as Ormeno

[Alicia] As soon as Ormeno

realized that this was lead,

he went and registered the land under his own name,

and he promptly evicted the Inallao family.

[narrator] With Inallao gone,

and the land rights eventually ending up

with the Aysen Mining Company,

in 1945, construction began.

And within three years,

an efficient lead and zinc

processing operation was in place here.

[Lynette] At its height,

this was a modern,

effective, productive,

industrial installation.

[Luis] We are inside of the processing plant for the ore.

The first time I came here,

it was still working.

So, you could hear the machines,

it was really loud,

and you could see a lot of dust.

[narrator] The metallic ores were easy to mine,

[narrator] The metallic ores were easy to mine,

but hard to process.

The rusting relics at the site

show how it was done.

The first step is this,

where you have a primary crusher.

Then, on the bottom of this, uh, machine,

you have a conveyor belt

that moves all the material to the next step.

[narrator] Next, came the grinder.

[Luis] Here, everything that was heavy move up,

and the rest that was lighter, stayed here.

and the rest that was lighter, stayed here.

[narrator] The operation is crammed inside

the hill-hugging building.

[Luis] The strange shape of this building,

it's because they wanted to make

the process more efficient.

So, if you follow the slope of the hill,

it's easier to move it.

The last part of the process

is to allow the material to, uh, settle down

because of the gravity.

And then, you can pack it and export it.

[narrator] By the 1950s,

Puerto Cristal's lead and zinc

was being exported all over the world.

The population had risen to 850,

and the mining company

did all it could to keep them here.

[Luis] They give them everything they needed.

They didn't have to pay for their house,

or the tap water, electricity,

uh, anything of that.

And they had access to all the basic services

And they had access to all the basic services

like health, education.

[Lynette] This is a place

where Chileans could come,

could put their roots down

and could really feel they were part of a place.

[narrator] The industry at Puerto Cristal

was still going strong in the 1990s

when Luis' father bought in to the processing plant.

[Luis] He was really surprised when he arrived

because he didn't expect to see all the buildings

and all the infrastructure that you had here.

[narrator] But the thriving plant

soon fell on hard times.

[Lynette] The price of zinc on Asian markets dropped

and the price of lead on Asian markets dropped.

And that meant that this facility was no longer viable.

[Luis] In late '90s,

[Luis] In late '90s,

it was so expensive to be here extracting the ore.

So, that's the reason why

he decided to close the mine.

[narrator] With no work to keep them there,

the population left.

Now, Luis wants to preserve this place

for the sake of his father.

[Luis] After my dad closed the mine,

[Luis] After my dad closed the mine,

he remained here until, maybe, 2010,

when he got sick and had to leave the place.

And he was the last habitant of Puerto Cristal.