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So much for the temporary lull in presentations and book-signings for Crosses of Iron.
Here is what’s coming up:
June 5-9: Mining History Association annual conference, Yarrow Resort by DoubleTree, 1800 Park Ave., Park City, Utah. I am scheduled to speak Saturday morning with two others in a session titled “Mining in the Southwest.”
July 13: Tucumcari Railroad Museum, 100 Railroad Ave, Tucumcari, NM. The presentation and book signing is scheduled for 2 p.m. I’m particularly excited about this one because Frank Turner, the founder of the museum who was interviewed for the book, is expected to attend.
Sept. 1: Dawson New Mexico Association reunion, 8 a.m. to 6 p.m., old townsite, Dawson, NM. I will be available all day to sell and sign books; I’ve also been asked to say a few words at the event. The book was still in progress when I attended my first reunion in 2022, so I’m looking forward to returning to thank folks in person for their participation and support.
Blog Archive
“God bless their souls. May their memories be eternal.” With that, Bishop Constantine of the Greek Orthodox Metropolis of Denver concluded a solemn memorial service to mark the 100-year anniversary of the Feb. 8, 1923, mine disaster under sunny skies and springlike temperatures at historic Dawson Cemetery. One hundred and twenty miners lost their lives in…
Read MoreThe news item couldn’t have been more innocuous. Thomas Brown and David Murphy of Dawson, N.M., who were in Albuquerque Monday, left for home by automobile yesterday. That snippet appeared in the Albuquerque Morning Journal on Feb. 27, 1918, sandwiched between word that Texas cattleman U. Keen was in town for a few days and…
Read MoreFor first-graders from the Forrester Elementary School in Springer, New Mexico, this was no ordinary field trip. Teachers Genevieve Hoskins and Zella Young had something more imaginative in mind for their young charges that day than a traditional visit to a historical site or museum: A once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to make some history of their own.…
Read MoreGhost town or a town of ghosts? When I began my research for an upcoming book about Dawson, New Mexico, my sole focus was on the former. After all, the earthbound story of the old mining town was scary enough: Two massive mine explosions 10 years apart. Nearly 400 men killed between them, the first…
Read MoreIndustrial history was made yesterday at Bruceton. So began a front-page story in The Pittsburgh Post on Oct. 31, 1911, describing in painstaking detail the first public demonstration inside the U.S. government’s new Experimental Mine in Bruceton, Pennsylvania. Its purpose? To determine once and for all whether coal dust – in a mine absent of…
Read MorePoor Frank Hinds never saw it coming. A longtime engineer for the El Paso & Southwestern Railroad, Hinds had no reason to suspect anything but a routine run when he pulled out of Dawson with carloads of coal ticketed for his hometown of Tucumcari. After all, trains had been making this 132-mile trip over the…
Read MoreFor Celestino Vincioni, selling grapes to mining camps during the early years of Prohibition must have felt like taking candy from a baby. Solicit orders for grapes. Deliver grapes. Collect payment for grapes. Repeat. What could possibly go wrong? Quite a bit, as it turns out, starting with a minor arrest that remarkably ascended to…
Read MoreFor Dawson’s shot firers, nothing seemed amiss the night of April 14, 1920. The men entered mine Nos. 1, 2, 3, and 6. They set their explosives. They exited to await detonation by an electric shot-firing system. All in accordance with company rules; all in accordance with New Mexico mine regulations. So how did five…
Read MoreWho hasn’t heard the expression “a canary in a coal mine”? Today, the phrase generally refers to a person or object equipped to detect danger at the earliest possible moment. But not long ago the words held a more literal meaning, reflecting the use of canaries in coal mines to detect whether the air was…
Read MoreFor a New Mexico coal town forever linked to two of the deadliest mine disasters in the nation’s history, Sept. 28, 1907, is remembered as a much happier occasion. On that night, 1,000 people –– 20 to 25 percent of the town’s population – came out to patronize a new business venture in downtown Dawson.…
Read MoreDozens of men working underground. A raging fire. A sudden explosion. Noxious fumes. The mine sealed shut for 12 days. Much is known about the mine disasters of 1913 and 1923 in Dawson, New Mexico. A combined 383 men – mostly immigrants from Europe – died in two violent explosions, the 263 lost in the…
Read MoreThe most spectacular crime in the history of Dawson, New Mexico, had it all – even if it didn’t actually take place in Dawson. Masked bandits. Bound and gagged guards. Exploding safes. Sledgehammers. Quick getaways. Ex-Rough Riders. Multiple arrests. And, as described by one newspaper, “one of the most daring hold-ups ever attempted by desperate…
Read MoreAngelo. Beniamino. Carlo. Dom. Egisto. Geriomine. Luigi. Petro. Pit Della. Raymondo. All emigrants from the same village in Italy. All coal miners. All among the 263 killed in the horrific Oct. 22, 1913, mine explosion in Dawson, New Mexico. All with the same family name: Santi. Ten in all. Of the 146 Italian miners to…
Read MoreThe unpaved roadway leading from State Road 505 to Dawson Cemetery, to be kind, is pretty remote. No businesses. No homes. No people. Not that I was surprised. I had read enough stories, seen enough photographs, and watched enough videos to prepare myself for my first visit to the historic cemetery, Or so I thought.…
Read MoreI thought I was ready for pretty much anything when I began my research into Dawson’s history. But I never expected to run smack-dab into a “breaking news” story while writing about a coal town that hasn’t existed for 70 years. That’s what happened earlier this month when a Google News search led me to…
Read MoreOne 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…
Read MoreCrosses of Iron
by Nick Pappas
Now available to order from:
University of New Mexico Press
… and other booksellers.
Audiobook version available to order from …
… and other audiobook sellers.