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Fort Stanton:  The Marine Hospital, 1899-1953

                Tuberculosis, sometimes referred to as consumption, is an infectious disease of the pulmonary system that had been killing people for centuries.  For centuries, the disease was poorly understood and it had unfortunate folkloric associations with vampirism due to physical symptoms such as red eyes, pale skin, and a weak heart.  Thus, tuberculosis patients were often kept in isolated, prison-like environments.  Research by scientists Louis Pasteur and Robert Koch in the late nineteenth century recognized that microorganism were the cause of many infectious diseases, opening the door to new treatments and future cures.  Further studies conducted by the Surgeon General in 1895 suggested that New Mexico’s climate would be beneficial to the treatment of consumption. 

As Fort Stanton was regarded as one of the finest western posts by those that served, it stands to reason that the infrastructure left behind following the closure of the military garrison in 1896 could still be used in some way.  The core of some of the buildings were made of stone, others of thick adobe and some with wood, and would therefore retain their structural integrity for some time.  Despite nearly three years of neglect, some local looting of doors, windows and fixtures, and grounds that had grown up in weeds, Fort Stanton was selected by the Marine Health Service to be the site of the first federal hospital for the exclusive treatment of tuberculosis.

                Following months of site work and building rehabilitation, the hospital opened to its first patient, Seaman Joseph Ryan, on November 17, 1899.  J.O. Cobb served as the first commander of the new hospital. 

The Public Health Service

                With origins dating back to an act of Congress in 1798 that called for the care of merchant seaman, the Public Health Service, now an agency within the federal Department of Health & Human Services, originally created a loose network of private hospitals around coastal waterways in the United States.  Reorganized in 1870 as the Marine Health Service, the mission of the organization expanded with the National Quarantine Act of 1878 to include the study and control of infectious diseases. 

                With a military model established by its first Supervising Surgeon, John Maynard Woodruff, the service continued to expand its mission through the turn of the century.  In 1902, the name was changed to the Public Health & Marine Hospital Service - and shortened to Public Health Service in 1912.  Today, the “Supervising Surgeon” is better known as the Surgeon General of United States. 

                The hospital at Fort Stanton was originally intended solely for merchant seaman stricken with tuberculosis.  With the next closest hospital in Roswell, however, many local residents often brought the sick and injured to Fort Stanton.  They were not often turned away.  Thus, in providing a necessary service to the nation and to the local population, the hospital at Fort Stanton contributed to the quality of life in area communities much like the former military garrison did. 

Managing a Marine Hospital in New Mexico

Among the reasons for selecting Fort Stanton as the site of the Marine Hospital was the abundance of nearby land and fresh water.  Cobb and other early administrators cultivated relationships with area merchants to provide basic necessities such as fresh vegetables and meat for both patients and workers.  Among the key early relationships was with merchant George Titsworth in Capitan.  Titsworth influenced a railroad line to stay in the area despite its threats to cease operation.  Titsworth argued that the line was needed in order to serve Fort Stanton and area residents, and he gained great political and economic influence in the area owing to his efforts.  For more than 44 years, Titsworth supplied the hospital with necessary supplies. 

Ample lands around the hospital also provided the facility with the opportunity to supply their own needs.  With time, the hospital developed its own herd of beef cattle, a dairy, and large gardens that supplied much of the patient and staff needs.  The creation of the “hospital ranch” also provided the staff with an opportunity to provide working therapy for its more ambulatory patients.  It was not uncommon to see recovering patients tending gardens outside their own tents or assisting work crews with various tasks around the grounds. 

The efficiencies attained in operations allowed the Hospital to be an exporter of beef to a marine hospital in Louisiana as well.  By the mid-1920s, the hospital included 28 main buildings including quarters for laundresses, new hospital wards, a power plant, warehouses, three kitchens, stables, a milk house, a social club, nurses quarters, and an Administration building.  It included 27, 230 acres for grazing, and required $200,000 in operational funds from governmental appropriations to fund the entirety of the operation. 

Patients

As a marine hospital dedicated to the treatment of tuberculosis, the patient was the priority for staff and civilian workers alike.  The object was to create an environment that was comfortable as well as nurturing without becoming a resort hotel.  Thus with a military influenced attention to detail, hospital staff planned activities down to the minute including morning exercises, craft activities, entertainment, afternoon naps, and other functions.  Some patients were allowed to live in tents outside the quadrangle while others were allowed to live in nearby open-air cabins.  A post office and radio tower brought daily news from the outside world in order to make the environment seem more like home and less like a hospital.  Annual celebrations such as the Fourth of July rodeo and baseball games, and the Labor Day barbecue also helped to create the feeling that Fort Stanton was not just a hospital, it was a community.  A small motion picture theater was added in the late 1920s which further lifted the spirits of patients and staff alike. 

Unfortunately, not all patients survived the disease, and for those that did not, two cemeteries were created on the grounds that accommodated the deceased. 

Those patients that survived seemed to enjoy the environment at Fort Stanton Hospital as well, for they were allowed to enjoy the mountain air and natural beauty of the area – in stark contrast to past tuberculosis treatment methodologies that isolated patients from the outside world.  Strict rules still governed their day-to-day existence, but many patients found the experience so rewarding that many sought jobs at Fort Stanton following their recoveries.  Many civilian workers began building home nearby the Fort, a practice that was not encouraged, but not prevented.  This led to a growing community built around the hospital.         

Additions and Changes

                The Fort Stanton Marine Hospital was not immune to changes wrought by the Great Depression and the coming of World War II.  In 1935, federal authorities chose grounds adjacent to the Marine Hospital to establish a Civilian Conservation Corp camp.  The CCC was a jobs program created by the Franklin D. Roosevelt administration for citizens put out of work as result of the downtown in the national (and world) economy during the 1930s.  Barracks for CCC workers were constructed across the Bonito River by CCC workers.  They contributed to the development of the hospital by widening and paving nearby roads, as well as laying new water pipe. 

                With war being waged in Europe and the institution of a national military draft in 1940, fewer men were available for CCC work.  Most CCC camps were shifted to military bases to assist with the military preparedness in case of war, and so by mid-1940, the CCC camp at Fort Stanton was abandoned. 

                The vacant CCC camp proved fortuitous as federal officials at the time were searching for a place to keep distressed German sailors, formerly of the German luxury liner SS Columbus.  In all, 410 German sailors were interned in the former CCC barracks by March of 1941. 

                Once again, the flexibility, environment, and isolation of the former Fort Stanton Military Reservation provided a solution for local and national needs. 

End of Another Era

The end of World War II brought new changes to the Public Health Service.  The Tuberculosis Control Division was formed in 1946, owing to new drugs being tested that were purported to cure and prevent the disease.  With the development of the antibiotic streptomycin in 1946, a reliable cure was finally found. 

With the opening of a new hospital in Ruidoso in 1950, local residents came to rely less on Fort Stanton Hospital to provide emergency care.  Rumors began to circulate about the eventual closure of the marine hospital as early as 1950, and those rumors proved true on May 28, 1953 as the Public Health Service announced plans to close the facility on June 30, 1953. 

While concerns about the abandonment of Fort Stanton for the second time in its history gripped the civilian work force and nearby communities, transfer of the facility to the State of New Mexico was announced on June 12^th, and it was  determined that the site would remain a state hospital focused on the treatment of tuberculosis patients.  That transfer did not, however, mean that all operational elements would remain as they were.  The Farm & Ranch Superintendent was charged with removing all animals from the site, effectively ending that aspect of the marine hospital operation.  While a few civilian workers stayed on with the State Hospital, most moved on to other marine hospitals or found jobs elsewhere.   

“Fort Stanton has a library, which comprises about three thousand books.  Some of them show the wear of service, others are almost as chaste as when they left the printer’s hands.  A few once adorned the shelves of splendid private libraries, and others have journeyed at sea beneath a sailor’s mattress in the bottom of a forecastle bunk.  They came to Fort Stanton in various ways – some were donated, some were brought by incoming patients, and they now form a silent democracy wherein each makes it mute appeal for attention, dressed in cloth, in buckram and in leather.”

                -Frank Wells, from “Fort Stanton, New Mexico – As it Was and As it Is”

“A complete ice and cold storage plant, modern laundry, a new executive building with offices, twenty-five and a half miles of barbed wire fence around reservation, and a remodeled kitchen and dining room…With these construction projects and the comparatively small sum of $100,000, the government has ample accommodation for 174 patients, comfortable and commodious residence for all officers, a complete system of sewage and waterworks, the whole lighted by electricity and many buildings heated by steam.” 

                -Dr. P.M. Carrington, Surgeon in Command, January 1902

“The staff includes 4 medical officers, 1 dental officer, 15 nurses, 132 civilian employees, and 12 part-time patient employees.  A total of 9,150 patients had been treated at the hospital in those 50 years.”

                -newspaper accounts at the 5oth anniversary celebration at Fort Stanton Hospital