How did the town of dawson develop into a coal town? what was its population in 1901?

Dawson was settled in the late 1860s by John B. Dawson (1830-1918) who had acquired land from Lucien B. Maxwell out of an older land grant belonging to Maxwell.  Their arrangement was verbal.  The former town of Dawson is located in Colfax County which borders Colorado to the north.  Dawson was originally located in Taos County prior to the creation of Colfax, (see Counties of New Mexico) when Taos County once ran all across the state and extended on up into Colorado.

John Dawson discovered coal deposits sitting on the surface and realized that it burned longer in his stove than the wood that he had been using.  He began selling it to his neighbors.  Meanwile, Maxwell eventually sold his land grant to a company that was looking to capitalize on the coal deposits.  The company endeavored to evict the other residents, some of whom were squatters, along with Dawson.  The conflict went on for a number of years until Dawson’s claim was sustained by the court.  Not only was it sustained, Dawson was ruled to be the owner of more land than he had originally claimed.  After the decision, Dawson and an associate, Charles Springer used the land for a cattle ranch.

In 1901, Dawson sold most of his property to the Dawson Fuel Company, a company that was formed by White Oaks Railway officials to operate in Colfax County.  The incorporators were Clarence D. Simpson, Charles B. Eddy and Benjamin S. Harmon with $1,000,000 in capital and headquarters in Alamogordo.  Its intention was to put in a plant to process coal.  The plant would include a coal washer, coke ovens and dumping houses.  Newspapers reported a great deal of demand for mechanics and laborers.

Eddy had been a railroad promoter and proposed to extend a rail line north from Tucumcari some 137 miles to Dawson and tie in with the existing Rock Island Lines to the north.  Dawson Fuel Company developed the “company town” of Dawson to accomodate over 500 people and was on its way to becoming the largest coal mining operation in the territory.

Looking back, it might seem that Dawson was doomed to tragedy.  The first unfortunate incident to strike the area was a fire in the Number 1 mine on September 14, 1903 that gave rise to a number of explosions.  Miraculously around five hundred miners escaped and when the fire was under control, only three lives had been lost.  Dawson Fuel continued to operate for three more years, during which time the town expanded to accomodate around two thousand people.

It was at this point that Phelps Dodge entered the picture, when the company acquired the Dawson mines in 1906.  By then, Phelps Dodge was a mature company but still privately owned, having been founded in 1834 as the successor to an import export company named Phelps, James and Company by Anson G. Phelps and his two sons in law, William E. Dodge and Daniel James.  It had initially been in the business of exporting cotton from the southern United States to England and importing minerals and metals to the United States.  With the settlement of the western territories, it began engaging in the promising mineral trade by acquiring copper mining interests in Arizona and the Dawson coal mines in northern New Mexico.  It gradually shifted out of the import export business and more into mining, lumber and lumber production.  By the time it acquired the Dawson mines, it had been in the copper mining business in Arizona since the early 1890s.  Its Copper Queen Mine in Bisbee, Arizona was once the most productive in the territory.

Once Phelps Dodge became the owner, they expanded the Dawson operation in the area known as Stag Canyon.  The initial founders having all passed away, the company became publicly owned in 1908.  In New Mexico, the company also branched out into steam powered electrical production and Dawson’s population nearly doubled to around three thousand five hundred people.  It continued to grow and by 1913, its population had reached around nine thousand, many of whom were immigrants.  In October 1913, the Stag Canyon Number 2 mine had just finished its inspection by the New Mexico Inspector of Mines when it suffered a massive explosion on October 22.  That morning 284 workers had entered the mine.  It was a day like any other when shortly after 3 o’clock PM, the explosion, fire and cave-in occurred.  The explosion sent flames shooting out of the tunnel for 100 feet.  On the surface, the whole town, two miles away, shook from the tremors.

A rescue effort began immediately, but the mine was deep.  Weeks later, the death toll stood at over two hundred sixty with twenty-three rescued.  About half of the dead were of Italian descent.  Two of the dead were rescue workers who had been overcome due to inhalation of methane during the recovery.  The twenty-three survivors were found in one group.  It is thought that the explosion was either caused by the iginition of methane gas by the flame from a miner’s lamp or from the use of dynamite that may have ingited coal dust.  The latter would have been a violation if dynamite had been used while the mine was still in operation.  Explosions caused by miner’s lamps were not uncommon in the United States.  Eventually, open flame lamps were replaced by battery operated lamps.

Another deadly explosion occurred nine and one half years later in Stag Canyon Mine Number One in which one hundred thirty-two lives were lost.  Some of the dead were from families who had lost relatives in 1913.  This explosion took place on February 8, 1923 and was thought to be caused when an electric powered mining car derailed.  The electric car likely stuck supporting timbers and sparks from fallen power lines ignited coal dust.

Phelps Dodge continued the mining operation until 1950 when demand for coal had dropped to a point where it was no longer economically feasible to operate the mines.  The closure also coincided with the expiration of a coal contract with Southern Pacific Railroad.  Some of the houses were moved away, but virtually the entire town was either sold or scrapped shortly thereafter.

Phelps Dodge continued to operate other mines until it was acquired in a friendly takeover in 2007 when it was bought by Freeport-McMoRan.  Nothing remains of Dawson except for a small number of buildings.  The death toll from the Dawson 1913 explosion remains among the highest from mining disasters in the United States.

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