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.
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
