Swisher County Hospital

Duane's take

Here's my telling of what the official marker says about the Swisher County Hospital. Now, before there was a proper hospital in Swisher County, folks had two choices when they took ill. You could track down a local doctor, hope he wasn't already out on a house call somewhere in the middle of nowhere, or you could make that drive up to Amarillo.

Forty-nine miles north. Forty-nine miles, and that's assuming the roads were kind, the weather was cooperating, and you weren't in any particular hurry to get better. For a good long while, that was just the deal.

That was life out on the Texas plains. But populations have a way of growing, and as the area filled up through the nineteen-twenties, it became clear that something had to be done closer to home. So the voters of Swisher County went to the polls in a nineteen twenty-six bond election and said yes.

Build us a hospital. And they did. Two years after that vote, the thing was completed.

Now, it wasn't grand by any measure. The original section came in at two floors and a basement, beds enough for twelve patients. Twelve.

You think about a whole county's worth of people, and there are twelve beds standing between them and that long haul up to Amarillo. But it was theirs, and it was here, and that mattered. The building served the county faithfully, and by nineteen forty-six it had grown, a major addition coming in to give the structure more room to do its work.

It kept right on serving as the county hospital all the way until nineteen sixty-nine, when a new facility was built and the old building passed the torch. Forty-nine miles to the nearest hospital, a bond election, twelve beds, and a building that outlasted nearly everyone who doubted it. Out here on the plains, that's not just a hospital.

That's a statement.

What the marker says

The earliest medical care for Swisher County residents was provided by local doctors or in Amarillo hospitals (49 miles north). As the area population increased during the 1920s, it became necessary to build a general health care facility here. Approved by the voters in a 1926 bond election, this hospital was completed two years later. The original section was comprised of two floors and a basement area, providing beds for 12 patients. Enlarged by a major addition in 1946, the structure served as the county hospital until 1969 when a new facility was built. (1981)