Dawson Cemetery visitors will notice something different as they approach the historic burial ground this year.

The mailbox that used to contain a notebook for visitors to record their impressions has been replaced by a more decorative memorial box designed and constructed by two New Mexico men with Denver roots.

Philip Cavos Jr., a welder by trade, and Tim Gianulis, a visual artist, erected the new box last month. Joe Bacca, the former longtime chairman of the Dawson New Mexico Association, and his daughter, Bobbie Jo, who replaced him last year, attended the installation.

The two men are longtime friends who met when their parents were stewards of the Assumption of the Theotokos Greek Orthodox Church in Denver. After not seeing each other for years, they ran into each other at the cemetery when the American Hellenic Educational Progressive Association (AHEPA) organized a memorial service to mark the 100-year anniversary of the 1923 mine disaster last February.

“Phil and I just caught up on old times,” Tim told me in an email. “He called me a few days later and ran (the idea) by me.”

The white cover of the welded steel box contains a gold cross under the words “May Their Memory Be Eternal,” a traditional Greek expression of sympathy to a bereaved family. The inside cover is adorned with an image of Christ, the word “Dawson,” and several white crosses similar to those memorializing the lost miners. The memory log cover displays an image of the cemetery gate under the words, “Memories, Stories and Tales.”

The memory box replaces the traditional black mailbox that has been a fixture at the cemetery since it was installed by Vivien Pick in 2005. Pick, then Vivien Andrews, was instrumental in conducting the research that led to the erection that same year of the large survey map board that helps visitors determine the precise location of their loved one’s gravesite.

“My intention for its use was just what it has become, a place for people to leave a name, a date of visitation, and maybe a note to a loved one or a reflection of how this place affected them,” she explained in an email. “Over the years, I would guess I have used about 40 of the little notebooks … I would also guess I have had many thousands of messages.

“I have seen visitations from every corner of our world and that has always made me proud to know Dawson will never be forgotten.”