History Stories
Sheridan VA Medical Center sits on a beautiful, historic campus just outside Sheridan, Wyoming, with peaceful, sweeping views of the Big Horn Mountains. Here, natural beauty and quality care for Veterans come together.
Wyoming’s first Veterans hospital opened in 1922 on the grounds of Fort MacKenzie, which was built in 1898. This hospital is known as a second-generation Veterans hospital. These facilities were built in rural areas between 1919 and 1950 to take advantage of open land for different therapies.
The Army left the fort during World War I, and it sat empty until the land was given to the new Veterans Bureau, what we now call the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs.
VA hospitals of this era, like Sheridan’s, focused on mental health, tuberculosis and general medicine. Mental health care was Sheridan VA Medical Center’s primary focus when it was founded as a place of rest for World War I Veterans struggling with war-related mental health conditions.
Sheridan VA Medical Center was also an early leader in using recreational and occupational therapies as part of a complete care plan. Veterans took part in woodworking, fishing, team sports and farming. From the 1930s to the 1960s, they farmed the more than 400 acres that once surrounded the hospital. The hospital also had baseball and bowling teams that played against local non-Veterans.
Wyoming’s rural respite quickly became one of the nation’s largest neuropsychiatric hospitals. After World War II, there were about 900 patients, roughly 8 percent of Sheridan’s population at the time.
One of the hospital’s standout features is its panoramic view of the Big Horn Mountains. Thanks to 2012 conservation easements on Soldier Hills and Soldier Ridge, these areas are permanently protected as open and agricultural spaces.
Over a century since its founding, the Sheridan VA Medical Center has proudly served thousands of Veterans in Wyoming. Today, it remains dedicated to innovative mental health and primary care for the nearly 13 thousand Veterans it serves.