Labor activist Dolores Huetra and author Nick Pappas were speakers at the 2024 reunion of former residents and descendants of Dawson, New Mexico. Today Dawson is a deserted ghost town after two explosions killed nearly 400 miners.

Nick Pappas signs copies of his book, 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 & Company in Dawson, New Mexico. Ten years later, a second blast claimed the lives of another 120 miners. Today, Dawson is a deserted ghost town. All that remains is a sea of white iron crosses memorializing the nearly four hundred miners killed in the two explosions--a death toll unmatched by mine disasters in any other town in America.Now, to mark the centennial of the second disaster, veteran journalist Nick Pappas tells the tragic story of what was once New Mexico's largest and most modern company town and of how the strong, determined residents of the community coped with two heartbreaking catastrophes.

Over Labor Day weekend the deserted ghost town of Dawson, New Mexico, was bustling as former residents and descendants gathered for a reunion. Speakers included Dawson-born labor activist Dolores Huerta and author Nick Pappas.
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