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, all that remains is a sea of white iron crosses in Dawson
Cemetery memorializing the nearly 400 killed in the two explosions—a death toll unmatched by mine disasters in any other town in America.
In Crosses of Iron, journalist Nick Pappas also chronicles the resilience of the Dawson community, which still gathers every other Labor Day weekend for a reunion.
Nick Pappas is an award-winning journalist who has dedicated more than 40 years of his life to newspapers, most
recently as an editor at the Albuquerque Journal.