Come See the Mountain (Kindle Single)

In a remote corner of the Bolivian Andes, the legendary Potosí silver mine has stood as a beacon for the greedy, the ruthless, and the desperate since the time of the conquistadors. But when journalist Tom Zoellner ventures into the mountain’s stifling tunnels, he finds himself surrounded by Scandinavians on holiday, taking selfies in the dust. Zoellner, the author of two books on the mining industry, realizes that the silver mine has become a tourist attraction, an underground anti-amusement park where hundreds of people die every year in explosions and cave-ins.

Welcome to the bizarre industry of "dark ecotourism."

In this searing and original report, Zoellner guides readers through the hand-blasted mines of Potosí in an exploration of the dark practice of touring the scars of the earth. Come See the Mountain is the first published book to explore a phenomenon that includes everything from watching glaciers crash into the sea from the deck of a cruise ship to chartering flights over the Pacific garbage patch. Dark ecotourism, Zoellner writes, is about explaining our modern lives to ourselves, and confessing our sins: “our personal culpability in every run of the dishwasher, every start of the car, every purchase of flash-frozen sea bass.”

At once a classic workplace exposé like The Jungle and a portrait of unintended consequences like The Beach, Zoellner’s Come See the Mountain is not just a veteran reporter’s frontline portrait of daily life in a Bolivian silver mine, but a journey into the guilty heart of progress. How can places like Potosí continue to exist in the 21st century? And what drives people—us—to visit them?


PRAISE FOR TOM ZOELLNER
“Tom Zoellner is a literary magician…Once you open it up there are so many reasons to keep reading that it’s nearly impossible to put down.” —LA Weekly, on Train

“Crazy fascinating” —Jon Stewart, The Daily Show, on Uranium

“A riveting journey into perilous terrain.” —Booklist, on Uranium

“A dazzling display of intrepid reporting.” —Entertainment Weekly, on The Heartless Stone

“An exhaustively researched and beautifully written work of narrative nonfiction.” —The Atlanta Journal-Constitution, on The Heartless Stone

“This is one of those all-too-rare books that have so much to them.” —The Washington Times, on Train

“Lyrical…keenly observed.” —The New York Times, on Train


ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Tom Zoellner is the author of five nonfiction books, including The Heartless Stone, Train, A Safeway in Arizona, and Uranium, and a founding member of the global writers' cooperative Deca. His writing has also appeared in The Atlantic, Foreign Policy, Harper’s, Time, Men’s Health, Slate, the Los Angeles Times and The Wall Street Journal. An Associate Professor of English at Chapman University, he lives in the mountains above Los Angeles.