Dawson Cemetery, New Mexico: The Coal Town Disasters and the Lights Among the Crosses

Dawson was once one of the largest towns in New Mexico, a Phelps Dodge coal camp in the Vermejo valley with a hospital, a department store, a theater, a swimming pool and a golf course. Two explosions, in 1913 and 1923, killed close to 400 miners between them, and when the mines closed in 1950 the town was taken apart and sold. Only the cemetery is left, its rows of identical white iron crosses standing in the grass below a mesa.

The state tourism department puts Dawson on its list of New Mexico’s most haunted places, and visitors who come after dark describe small lights moving among the graves like the lamps on miners’ helmets. It is also a working memorial: former residents and their families gather here every two years and leave messages in a notebook by the gate. Come for the history and treat it with care.

History of Dawson and its cemetery

John Barkley Dawson bought land on the Vermejo River from Lucien Maxwell in the late 1860s and ranched it for decades. Coal was found there in 1895, and in 1901 he sold out to Charles Eddy, whose partners formed the Dawson Fuel Company and built a railroad to Tucumcari. In 1905 and 1906 Phelps Dodge bought the mines and the railroad, because Dawson coal made excellent coke for steelmaking.

To attract workers to such a remote place, Phelps Dodge built a full company town. Miners came from Italy, Greece, Mexico, the Slavic countries and across the United States, and by 1913 about 6,000 people lived in Dawson. Its gravestones are inscribed in Italian, Greek, Spanish, Slavic languages and English. Labor leader Dolores Huerta was born in Dawson in 1930.

On October 22, 1913, a dynamite charge was fired in Stag Canyon Mine No. 2 while men were underground, against company rules and state law. It ignited coal dust and the mine exploded. Of the 286 men who went to work that morning, 23 survived; 263 died, and two rescuers were also killed. It remains the second-deadliest mining disaster in American history. Ten years later, on February 8, 1923, a mine car jumped its track in Mine No. 1, knocking down timbers and an electric cable whose sparks set off the coal dust. About 120 more men died.

Phelps Dodge paid for the victims’ burials, and their graves were marked with identical white iron crosses about two and a half feet high, set in rows of ten. Some are blank, probably for men who could not be identified. The mines closed in 1950, the last residents left by 1954, and the houses were razed, sold or hauled away. Phelps Dodge renovated the cemetery in 1990, it was listed on the National Register in 1992, and in 2019 a foundation grant paid for new fencing and drainage.

The ghost stories of Dawson

The miners' lamps

The best-known story is of small lights moving through the cemetery at night, low to the ground and bobbing, which visitors compare to the carbide or electric lamps miners wore on their helmets. New Mexico’s tourism department repeats the story, and it is the reason Dawson appears on lists of the state’s most haunted places.

Figures among the crosses

Others say they have seen shapes standing between the rows of crosses after dark. These accounts come from visitors’ reports collected by ghost sites and tourism articles, not from any named witness we could find, and nothing in Dawson’s history records a haunting.

A place of memory

The people most connected to Dawson talk about it differently. Former residents describe it as a beautiful, peaceful place, and a reunion of hundreds of descendants has been held there every two years since the town closed. The Netflix series Godless drew on the 1913 disaster, which has brought new visitors.

Where to look

• The miners' section: the fenced rows of white iron crosses, most for the 1913 and 1923 victims.
• The blank crosses: likely for men who were never identified.
• The older and newer sections: with family graves and World War II casualties.
• The notebook by the gate: where visitors and descendants leave messages.

Visiting Dawson Cemetery

From Cimarron, drive about 12 miles east on US 64, then turn north on Dawson Road for about 5 miles; the cemetery is on a dirt road to the right after the second railroad crossing. From I-25, take the Maxwell exit; the cemetery is about 18 miles away, with the last 5 on gravel. There are no services, so bring water and fill up in Cimarron or Raton.

The cemetery is visited by the public, but the old townsite farther up the road is private grazing land, so do not wander beyond the cemetery. Stay on the paths, do not touch or move the crosses, and close the gate behind you. Daylight is the right time to come, both for safety on the gravel road and out of respect.

Cimarron’s St. James Hotel, half an hour away, makes a good base, with its own ghost stories.

• Visiting Reached by gravel road; the cemetery is visited by the public, the old townsite beyond is private

Tips for your visit

• Go in daylight and check the weather; the gravel road can be rough after rain or snow.
• Bring water and fuel; there are no services.
• Read a few names and dates on the crosses; many are in Italian and Greek.
• Stay at the St. James Hotel in Cimarron and visit Philmont’s museums nearby.

More haunted places nearby

• St. James Hotel, Cimarron: the Wild West hotel with Room 18
• Laguna Vista Lodge, Eagle Nest: an 1898 lodge in the Moreno Valley
• Hotel Eklund, Clayton: in the town voted most haunted in New Mexico
• Haunted places in New Mexico: every place in the state
• Haunted places in New Mexico

Sources

Facts on this page are checked against the official website, historic records and news coverage. Ghost stories are reported as staff, visitors and investigators tell them, and we say where records contradict a story.

• Wikipedia: Dawson, New Mexico
• National Register of Historic Places nomination: Dawson Cemetery (1992)
• Associated Press via Washington Times: Dawson Cemetery a beautiful reminder (2019)
• KRTN Radio: Dawson, New Mexico (2015)
• New Mexico True (state tourism): Haunted New Mexico
• Los Alamos Daily Post: The most haunted city in New Mexico, Clayton