In October 1913, 261 miners and two rescuers died when a massive explosion ripped through a mine operated by Phelps, Dodge & Company in Dawson, New Mexico. Ten years later, a second blast claimed the lives of another 120 miners. Today, Dawson is a deserted ghost town. All that remains is a sea of white iron crosses memorializing the nearly four hundred miners killed in the two explosions--a death toll unmatched by mine disasters in any other town in America.
Now, to mark the centennial of the second disaster, veteran journalist Nick Pappas tells the tragic story of what was once New Mexico's largest and most modern company town and of how the strong, determined residents of the community coped with two heartbreaking catastrophes.
Nick Pappas is an award-winning journalist who dedicated more than forty years of his life to newspapers, most recently as an editor at the Albuquerque Journal. A native of Lowell, Massachusetts, he now lives with his wife in Albuquerque, New Mexico.
Richard Melzer is professor of history at the University of New Mexico, Valencia campus.
"An engrossing tale of the rise, the flowering and contributions, the disasters, and the memories of Dawson, a very important coal-mining site in northern New Mexico."--Richard W. Etulain, author of New Mexican Lives: Profiles and Historical Stories
Foreword Richard Melzer Preface
Chapter 1. Entombed Chapter 2. The Birth of Dawson Chapter 3. The Early Years Chapter 4. A Model Community Chapter 5. The Immigrants Chapter 6. Danger in the Mines Chapter 7. October 22, 1913 Chapter 8. The Burials Chapter 9. The Sorrow Chapter 10. The Cause Chapter 11. The Inquest Chapter 12. Back to Normal Chapter 13. Oh, No, Not Again! Chapter 14. What Happened This Time? Chapter 15. Writing on the Wall Chapter 16. Closing Time Chapter 17. Dawson Cemetery Chapter 18. Down Memory Lane Epilogue
Acknowledgments Killed in the Explosion of October 22, 1913 Killed in the Explosion of February 8, 1923 Notes Bibliography Index