Gary Torres poses for a photo with me after the event. (Photo by Della Muniz)

I’ll go pretty much anywhere to speak about Dawson.

So I didn’t give distance a second thought when I was invited to present this month at New Mexico Highlands University in Las Vegas, N.M., roughly a 130-mile, one-way trip from my Albuquerque home.

Gary Torres did me one better.

The 72-year-old son of a coal miner drove all the way from Windsor, Colorado – a nearly six-hour, 400-mile trip – for the opportunity to attend my Nov. 13 talk about Dawson and my book, Crosses of Iron: The Tragic Story of Dawson, New Mexico, and Its Twin Mining Disasters.

Why the interest?

“For quite a few years now I have become more interested in the history of Dawson because my family lived, worked and started their families there,” he told me by email after the event. “I have several aunts and uncles who were born there, the first aunt born in 1920.”

Gary, who was accompanied by friend Della Muniz, didn’t come empty-handed.

He brought an old family photograph dated 1918 that showed his grandfather Eduardo Torres, his great-grandfather Anselmo Gurule, and his great-uncles Alex Gurule and Joe Torres.

All four are holding their lunch pails. His grandfather has a whip hanging from his neck, suggesting he worked with the mules down inside the mines.

Gary said the photo serves as a reminder that “life was hard, pay was low, (and) the dangers of mining was something they had to encounter all the time.”

“I am a proud great-grandson and grandson of the work ethics of my family,” he said. “They lived a decent and proud life.”

Gary has visited Dawson Cemetery but has yet to attend one of the every-other-year reunions on the old townsite.

“Hopefully, I can attend the next one,” he said.

As is usually the case, Gary wasn’t the only person to attend with a connection to Dawson. As I’m wont to do at the start of my presentations, I asked for a show of hands from those who had some familiarity with Dawson, had visited the historic cemetery, or had attended a reunion. I wasn’t surprised by the strong response.

In fact, one of the reasons I was invited to speak at Highlands was because the university’s provost, Dr. Roxanne Gonzales, has her own family ties to Dawson.

Roxanne’s mother, Juliana Dominguez, grew up in Dawson and was a member of the final class to graduate from Dawson High School the year the town closed in 1950. Her uncle Julian Dominguez was killed in the second of Dawson’s two mine disasters in 1923. Another uncle, Simon Trujillo, served for a time as president of the coal miner’s union.

I want to thank Roxanne for the warm welcome and the several dozen folks who took a few hours out of their busy lives to attend my presentation.

Even if they didn’t come from 400 miles away.