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The Dawson Elk Valley Ranch has a new owner – officially.
Five years after the Colfax County ranch was placed on the market, and one year after an agreement was announced, The Nature Conservancy has acquired the 50,000-acre property, once the site of the coal town of Dawson and two of the nation’s worst mine disasters.
The MIRR Ranch Group, the Denver-based company that brokered the sale, confirmed earlier this month that the global environmental organization had closed on the purchase.
“We appreciate the collaborative efforts of the seller and The Nature Conservancy’s team to navigate a complex process to arrive at a mutually beneficial result,” said broker Jeff Hubbard in a statement. “It is extremely gratifying to know this iconic wilderness property will now be protected in perpetuity under the stewardship of The Nature Conservancy.”
For its part, The Nature Conservancy confirmed the Dec. 15 purchase and said it is in the process of developing a management plan for the property.
Part of that plan is expected to be the sale of about 32,500 acres of timberland to the Forestry Division of the New Mexico Energy, Minerals and Natural Resources Department. The purchase would be funded at least in part by a $50 million federal grant the state received last year from the U.S. Forest Service.
Here is the story I wrote for the Albuquerque Journal, which was published in its print edition on Dec. 29.
Blog Archive
On Oct. 3, two days after the official release of Crosses of Iron: The Tragic Story of Dawson, New Mexico, and Its Twin Mining Disasters by the University of New Mexico Press, SouthWest Writers published a Q&A interview with me about the book on its website. SouthWest Writers, which was founded in the early 1980s,…
For a first-time author, you can’t ask for more than to open your local Sunday newspaper and find a review of your new book — and a good one at that. Especially on the exact day of the book’s official release. But that’s what happened on Oct. 1 when I opened to the books section…
In early September, I received an email from Sharon Niederman asking if I would be willing to meet with her to talk about the upcoming release of my book, Crosses of Iron: The Tragic Story of Dawson, New Mexico, and Its Twin Mining Disasters. Naturally, I said “yes,” and we met a few days later…
Now that we’re within a few weeks of the Oct. 1 release of Crosses of Iron, I want to call your attention to a few words that appear in the Acknowledgments section at the back of the book. There you will find an expression of my heartfelt gratitude to the Dawson community for its encouragement…
On Tuesday afternoon, Italians will gather at a church in the Province of Modena to observe the National Day of the Sacrifice of the Italian Workers in the World. And when they do, the Dawson mine disasters of 1913 and 1923 will be a key part of it. That’s because Manlio Badiali, a Pompeano resident…
“Over One Million Tons of Coal Produced From Dawson Mines During the Year 1923” “Dawson Boy Scouts Build New Club House” “Dawson Schools Rank with Best in the State” These were among the headlines that appeared in a pictorial supplement issued in the spring of 1924 by The Dawson News, the town’s weekly newspaper. While more company-run house…
When I began to work on Crosses of Iron, I knew there would be some aspects of the story that would require a lot of time to piece together. The peak population of Dawson wasn’t one of them.Not only was I mistaken, but even now, with the book only months from its October release, I…
Dawson Cemetery wasn’t the only setting in February to remember the 120 men killed in the mine disaster of 1923. Across the Atlantic, some 5,500 miles away, the 100-year anniversary of the deadly explosion was marked by stories and photographs in Italian newspapers, including a major daily serving the province of Modena in northern Italy. The…
“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…
The 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…
For 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.…
Ghost 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…
Industrial 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…
Poor 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…
For 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…
For 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…
Who 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…
For 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.…
Dozens 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…
The 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…
Crosses 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.
