SANTA FE, N.M. (AP) Tuesday marks the 100th anniversary of a northeastern New Mexico mining disaster that a federal agency says produced the second-highest death toll in a U.S. coal mine accident. The Mine Safety and Health Administration says 263 miners were killed Oct. 22, 1913 in the coal-mining town of Dawson located northeast of Cimarron in Colfax County.
About 25 miners survived the disaster, which the state mine inspector blamed on coal dust. Most of those were recent immigrants from Italy, Greece and other countries.
According to the Santa Fe New Mexican, the town closed in 1950 and little is now left of Dawson other than the dusty cemetery and weed-strewn foundations.
