One of the first questions I’m asked when people hear I’m working on a book about Dawson is why?

Why devote years of your life to researching and writing about an old New Mexico coal town that hasn’t been around for more than half a century?

Fair enough. Here’s the back story:

When my wife and I moved to Albuquerque in June 2013 to be closer to our grandchildren – and for me to begin an editor job at the Albuquerque Journal – it turned out our arrival coincided with the 100-year anniversary of the second-worst mine disaster in U.S. history.

Right here. In New Mexico. Roughly 200 miles from my new home.

Given the historical significance, the Albuquerque Journal,  Santa Fe New Mexican and other state newspapers marked the 100-year anniversary with prominently displayed news stories and historical photographs.

And that wasn’t all.

On the Sunday before the anniversary, the Raton Museum hosted a ceremony during which a representative from the Italian Consul General of Los Angeles donated a memorial plaque to be placed at historic Dawson Cemetery. One week later, New Mexico’s two Greek Orthodox parishes in Albuquerque and Santa Fe joined in a graveside memorial service to remember the miners, including 36 Greeks, who perished in the explosion.

This was my introduction to Dawson. Over the next few years, I remember plugging “Dawson, New Mexico” and “Dawson mine disaster” into Google from time to time, becoming more and more captivated with each new discovery.

But it wasn’t just the 1913 mine disaster – and another that claimed the lives of 120 more 10 years later – that stuck with me. Or the closing and razing of the town on short notice in 1950. Or even the story behind Dawson Cemetery’s acceptance onto the National Register of Historic Places in 1992.

No, there was something else I found truly extraordinary: The Dawson community still was very much alive nearly 70 years after the last car of coal was dumped at the tipple.

There is an extensive Dawson New Mexico Association website. There is a vibrant Dawson Facebook page that counts more than 425 people among its members. And hundreds of people with family ties to Dawson continue to gather every other year for a picnic/reunion on the old townsite. Nearly 450 people attended the most recent one in 2018, though it wasn’t that long ago that the Labor Day weekend get-togethers attracted more than 1,000.

So if this story fascinates you as much as it does me, sign up for my newsletter so I can keep you apprised of the book’s progress. And please contact me if you have stories, diaries, letters, documents, photos or other materials to share about your family’s days in Dawson.

Who knows?

They could be forever enshrined in the written history of your beloved Dawson.