“Camouflage Tourism: ATVs and Post-mining Economies in the American West”

By Veronika Zavratnik (University of Ljubljana) and Jerry K. Jacka (University of Colorado Boulder)

Discussant: Lauren Barrett, PhD Candidate, University of Colorado Boulder Anthropology

Date: Friday, October 25

Time: 11am-12pm

Location: Hale 450 and remote. Please RSVP to kathryn.goldfarb@colorado.edu for a copy of the paper and the Zoom link

Abstract: The montane regions of the American West are dotted with the after-effects of mining from the 19th and 20th centuries. While many of the towns that grew up around the early mining rush sites soon turned into ghost towns, a few of them maintained mining operations into the last few decades of the 20th century. Eventually those mines also shut down forcing residents who remained into pursuing other sources of income. Tourism has been the main industry that has replaced mining, given the scenic, mountainous settings of most of these towns. In the last decade, however, a few towns have embraced off-highway vehicle (OHV) tourism, opening the streets of their communities to the roar and dust created by all-terrain vehicles (ATVs), witnessing the ecological damages from ATVs in the surrounding hills, and fostering heated debates about tourism and its limits. In this article, we examine what we call “camouflage tourism” in these communities, not just in recognition of the clothing style worn by many ATV enthusiasts but also to highlight the ambiguous impacts this form of tourism brings to communities.