Crosses of Iron: The Tragic Story of Dawson, New Mexico, and Its Twin Mining Disasters

“[O]ne of the best-written, most thoroughly researched histories ever published on mining
disasters in American history. As a prize-winning veteran newspaper writer and editor, Pappas is the ideal author to tell this story with precision, compassion, and engaging prose.”

— Richard Melzer

A History of New Mexico Since Statehood, co-author

Now available to order from …

University of New Mexico Press

Amazon

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Audiobook version available to order from …

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On Oct. 22, 1913, 261 miners and two rescue men were killed after a massive explosion ripped through a mine operated by Phelps, Dodge & Company. Among the dead: Husbands. Fathers. Brothers. Sons. Some who only months earlier had taken their first steps on American soil.

Ten years later, it would happen again. On Feb. 8, 1923, a second blast claimed the lives of another 120 miners, including relatives of those who died in the 1913 explosion. Only two men survived, miraculously emerging from the mine 16 hours after being given up for dead.

All that remains of what once was the largest company-owned town in the Southwest is historic Dawson Cemetery and its nearly 400 white iron crosses that mark the gravesites of the lost miners.

At least on paper.

While the community hasn’t existed for nearly three-quarters of a century, every two years, on Labor Day weekend, hundreds of people with ties to Dawson return to the townsite for a picnic reunion. Last year, roughly 600 people turned out for reunion weekend — including Dawson native and celebrated American labor icon Dolores Huerta – 72 years after the town closed in 1950.

This was the backdrop to why, when I retired as the city editor of the Albuquerque Journal in 2018 after 40 years as a professional journalist, I committed to writing a narrative nonfiction account of Dawson and what lies behind the haunting sea of iron crosses at Dawson Cemetery.

Now, five years later, Crosses of Iron: The Tragic Story of Dawson, New Mexico, and Its Twin Mining Disasters is available to order.

Why is Dawson relevant today? Because this old coal town still has an important tale to tell, one perhaps unmatched in breadth and scope by any mining town in America. The themes of mining life that surfaced in the shadows of the Sangre de Cristo Mountains are as pertinent as they were when Dawsonites faced not one but two of the greatest calamities in the West’s young history.

Despair. Faith. Courage. Fortitude. Resilience.

And a love of community unbroken to this very day.

Crosses of Iron is that story.