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News Release
April 2, 2007
Book on Sunshine Mining Disaster Selected for Boise State's
Second First-Year Reading Experience
A “vivid and haunting” account of one of the most tragic episodes in Idaho’s
history — the 1972 Sunshine Mining disaster — has been selected as the book for
Boise State University’s second First-Year Student Reading Experience.
About 2,500 of the university’s new degree-seeking students will be asked to
read Gregg Olsen’s “The Deep Dark: Disaster and Redemption in America’s Richest
Silver Mine” this summer and be prepared to discuss the book at various
on-campus settings when they begin classes in the fall.
Coordinated by the New Students and Family Programs Office, the First-Year
Student Reading Experience is designed to reinforce academic values, engage
students in discussions on pertinent issues, and build campus community. Free
copies of the book will be distributed to new students at summer orientation
programs and via the mail.
“The Deep Dark” tells the story of a fire that inexplicably started in the
Sunshine Silver Mine, located about eight miles southeast of Kellogg in Idaho’s
Shoshone County, on May 2, 1972. Eighty-one miners escaped, but 91 were caught
underground and died of smoke inhalation and/or carbon monoxide poisoning. Seven
days later, two more men were rescued.
Olsen’s book looks beyond the intensely suspenseful story of the fire and rescue
to the wounded heart of Kellogg, a quintessential company town that has
continued to struggle with its loss. It has been called “a vivid and haunting
chapter in the history of working-class America … one of the great rescue
stories of the 20th century.”
New students at Boise State will be engaged in discussions about “The Deep Dark”
in several venues. University 101 courses will include discussion of the book;
Student Residential Life is developing programming around the book; and themes
from the reading will be focal points for a film series, several lectures and
other activities scheduled during the fall semester.
Faculty and staff are encouraged to read the “The Deep Dark” and to engage
first-year students in discussions about it. Faculty members can receive a free
copy through the New Students and Family Programs Office, compliments of the
Boise State Office of the Provost. In addition, “The Deep Dark,” which retails
for $14.95, will be available at a discount price of $11.20 in the Boise State
Bookstore.
Olsen is the author of seven nonfiction books, including the New York Times
bestseller “Abandoned Prayers.” A journalist and investigative author for more
than two decades, Olsen has received numerous awards and much critical acclaim
for his writing. The Seattle native now lives in rural Washington state.
In 2006 the Idaho Library Association named “The Deep Dark” Idaho’s Book of the
Year. Kathy Watson, the ILA awards chair, said Olsen’s book “sheds an empathetic
light on an Idaho tragedy and the culture of the people whose lives were changed
forever,” describing it as “suspenseful, well-written, and extensively
researched.”
A review in the Seattle Times said Olsen “tells a vividly detailed,
heartbreaking tale about a dark, alien place, the people who loved working there
and a town that has never been the same” and the Salem (Ore.) Statesman Journal
calls “The Deep Dark” an “exciting, vital, memorable book.”
According to Michael Laliberte, Boise State’s vice president for student
affairs, “The Deep Dark” is certain to stimulate lively discussions this fall in
classes that range from history to sociology to English literature to
journalism. “We are excited to have a book to review that will unify our
community,” he said, “a book with a common theme that crosses over so many
academic dimensions and helps us look at the subject matter through different
eyes.”
The 2007-08 First-Year Student Reading Experience follows a successful inaugural
program in 2006-07 that featured the book “Mountains Beyond Mountains,” one of
the most popular reads by first-year students on college campuses. Written by
Pulitzer Prize-winning author Tracy Kidder, “Mountains Beyond Mountains” tells
the story of American physician Paul Farmer, a renowned infectious-disease
specialist, and his efforts to cure infectious diseases and to bring the
lifesaving tools of modern medicine to those who need them most.
Boise State’s inaugural First-Year Reading Experience featured a variety of
discussions on “Mountains Beyond Mountains” and included a visit to the campus
and public lecture by Kidder in February of this year. Similar events are
planned for “The Deep Dark” during the 2007-08 academic year.
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Contact: Michael Laliberte, Student Affairs, (208) 426-1418,
michaellaliberte@boisestate.edu
Media Contact: Bob Evancho, University Communications, (208) 426-1643;
bevanch@boisestate.edu
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Last reviewed on
Tuesday, May 01, 2007
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