Crosses of Iron: The Tragic Story of Dawson, New Mexico and Its Twin Mining Disasters

In October 1913, 261 miners and two rescuers died when a massive explosion ripped through a mine operated by Phelps, Dodge & Co. in Dawson, N.M. Ten years later, a second blast claimed the lives of another 120 miners. Today, all that remains is a cemetery marked by a sea of white iron crosses memorializing the nearly four hundred miners killed in the two explosions-and a vibrant community that still gathers by the hundreds every other Labor Day weekend for a picnic reunion on the old townsite, nearly three-quarters of a century after the town was no more.
Nick Pappas worked for four decades in the newspaper industry, most recently as an editor at the Albuquerque Journal. He has written news stories, columns, and award-winning editorials, as well as freelance articles for magazines. Prior to the Journal, he spent nearly 24 years at The Telegraph of Nashua, N.H., where he served at different times as business editor, city editor, managing editor, editor-in-chief, and editorial page editor. He was named an editorial writer of the year by the New England Newspaper and Press Association in 2009 and 2011, and he was recognized by the New Hampshire Press Association with its Lifetime Achievement Award in 2011. A native of Lowell, Mass., he now lives with his wife, Susan, in Albuquerque.

[@MahlonWilson]

I relied on a radiochemist, whose name was John Schulte, for intense radioactive sources used in hydrodynamic experiments that I became involved with in September 1956. John was raised in Dawson where his father was the baker.
I was able to make engineering improvements to John's remote handling equipment that greatly expanded the capability of the techniques that we were using. When this technique was obsoleted by the creation of a very large x-ray machine in 1960, John asked me to join him in the creation of a modern hot cell facility, and equip it for doing postmortem analysis of nuclear rocket engine fuel and molten plutonium reactor fuel. That facility is called Wing-9 CMR Building, and is still a viable location that has been continually utilized for handling radioactive materials. I was John's principal engineer until July 1975 when I joined a new effort to build an 800 MeV proton accelerator. My association with John gave me experience that resulted in my being loaned to accelerator facilities in Canada and Switzerland. I owe my success and enjoyment of my jobs to this son of the Dawson baker.

[@vivienapick6728]

Wonderful presentation Nick.

[@jstevedavis9615]

What an interesting story about the development of the West in general, New Mexico in specific. Thank you. What, besides the cemetary, remains standing today?

[@karakoppanyi3845]

We’re all the buildings destroyed?

[@vivienapick6728]

They werre sold and moved. The houses of Dawson still stand in many towns accross New Mexico.