Old Camp Hospital

Duane's take

Here's how the official marker tells it, and I'll do my best to do it justice. You're rolling through Reeves County now, and if these old walls could talk, they'd tell you about a man who spent sixty-four years making sure West Texas had somewhere to heal. The building in front of you is the Old Camp Hospital, the first permanent hospital in the Trans-Pecos area.

It was erected in 1929 by a pioneer physician and surgeon named Jim Camp, M.D. But to just about everyone out here, he was simply Dr. Jim.

Now, Dr. Jim came to Pecos in 1900, and in those early days, the Trans-Pecos was not exactly overflowing with modern medical conveniences. When someone needed an operation, you made do with what you had.

Kitchen tables. Makeshift equipment. Whatever was at hand.

Dr. Jim worked with it all, because the work had to be done. But here's the thing about a man like that.

He didn't just accept the hard way as the permanent way. He had a goal, a real and specific one: to build and to equip a modern hospital. And in 1929, that goal became the building standing right there.

Brick and mortar, proper facilities, a place worthy of the patients who needed it. By 1950, the medical community had taken notice, and Jim Camp was named Texas Doctor of the Year. Sixty-four years of service.

That is the number the marker gives you, and it is a number worth sitting with for a moment out here under the Trans-Pecos sky. The building was converted to office use in 1954, so it found a new life after its days as a hospital. But it started as one man's answer to a frontier without one, built with the same stubborn care he brought to every kitchen-table surgery along the way.

What the marker says

First permanent hospital in the Trans-Pecos area. Erected 1929 by pioneer physician and surgeon, Jim Camp, M.D. -- "Texas Doctor of the year" for 1950. "Dr. Jim" came to Pecos in 1900. In early days, he performed many operations using kitchen tables and other makeshift equipment. During 64 years of service, he strove to improve facilities, one of his goals being to build and to equip a modern hospital. Converted to office use 1954. Recorded Texas Historic Landmark, 1966.