Dawson Stags

Dawson, New Mexico was a coal town in the mountains of Colfax County, owned by the Phelps Dodge company and home at its peak to nearly 3,000 people. Its mines were known as the Stag Canyon mines, and that is where the town's only professional ballclub got its name.

The Stags played in the Class D Rocky Mountain League in 1912, the year New Mexico became a state. The league opened the season with four Colorado clubs, including the Colorado Springs Millionaires, and quickly began shuffling franchises. On June 15, the Colorado Springs team moved to Dawson and became the Stags, making them one of the first professional teams in the new state. The whole league folded on July 5, with Dawson tied for third place.

Dawson's story after baseball is a hard one. On October 22, 1913, an explosion in Stag Canyon Mine No. 2 killed 263 of the 286 men working that morning, and a second disaster struck in 1923. The mines closed in the 1950s, the town emptied, and Dawson is a ghost town today, a minor league city that no longer exists.