Stag Canon No. 1 Mine
Phelps Dodge and Company Dawson, New Mexico
February 8, 1923
No. Killed - 120
From Bureau of Mines report by D. Harrington
About 2:20 p.m. an explosion on the main entry spread out the entry to the drift mouth and over most of the workings, killing 120 of the 122 men underground.
After repairing the fan housing, rescue workers proceeded inside restoring ventilation as they went. About 8 o'clock the next morning two men from an isolated section walked out unaided.
The explosion demolished rockdust barriers on the main entry and aircourse without stopping. A locomotive had put two loaded cars on the track after dragging them 100 feet, knocking out several timbers in doing so. The trolley and feed wires came down on the steel cars, and arcs set off the dense cloud of dust dislodged from the timbers.
The explosion was propagated through the mine by the coal dust. Sprinkling had been confined to wetting cars and the floor of entries and was ineffective. Rockdusting and rockdust barriers were recommended.
