San Marcos Gypsum Mining Town

It was a beautiful sunny, blue sky morning when we landed by zodiac on Isla San Marcos off the coast of Baja California. As we hiked up a hill towards the little mining town of San Marcos we started to notice a fine white dust on the ground and surrounding shrubs. Cresting the hill we heard in the distance the grinding sounds of massive mechanical machines. Then almost out of no-where a thick white fog started rapidly moving towards us. We zipped up our clothes, covered our faces with scarfs and buried our cameras in air tight dry bags. Before we knew it we were in a good old white out but this white out was from dust clouds, ultra-fine gypsum dust. It was truly surreal as we moved through what seemed like a snow covered ghost town. There was no one in sight and all the windows and doors were shuttered tight. At first we thought the town was abandoned, everything and I mean everything was covered in pure white gypsum dust. As we walked towards the mining operation we noticed some fresh footprints and tire tracks then we noticed alone bicycle rider headed towards the mine. San Marcos literally sits in the shadows of a giant gypsum mine which is both the lifeblood and deathblow to the town’s 425 inhabitants. As the wind blows in from the sea the town is regularly blanketed with and ultra-fine talc like dust as the gypsum is mined, processed and sent via conveyor belts to waiting ships. I couldn’t imagine living in these conditions, it can’t be very healthy.