EXHIBITS
Dinosaurs
Fossils
Prehistoric People
Native Americans
Mountain Men
Oregon-California
Trail
Mormon Trail
Pony Express
Cherokee &
Overland Trail
Stagecoaches
Union Pacific
Railroad
John Wesley Powell
Coal & Trona Mining
Oil & Gas Booms
Mormon War of
1857
Chinese
Massacre
U.S. Army in Wyoming
Outlaws & Lawmen
Butch Cassidy & The Sundance Kid
Big Nose George
Cattle Ranching
Sheep Herding
Riverboats
Lincoln Highway
Aviation
Amelia
Earhart
Women's History
Wyoming General Hospital
Nursing
Firemen
Rialto Theater
Home
Entertainment
Wild Horses
Offsite Exhibits
Chinese Dragon
Parade
WYOMING GENERAL HOSPITAL
In
1894, the Wyoming
State Miners’
Hospital was
built in Rock
Springs, but
burned in 1897.
When the hospital
reopened in 1898
as the Wyoming
General Hospital,
it admitted
patients “of any
society and
class” and began
its nurse
training school,
which continued
for 50 years.
Nursing students lived two to a room in the nurses’ home next door to the Wyoming General Hospital. From seven to eleven in the morning the students bathed patients and washed and ironed bandages and sheets in the hospital. After lunch they attended classes until four o’clock.
After dinner,
nursing students
performed
hospital floor
duty until seven
in the evening.
On
Saturdays
they spent the
day working in
the hospital.
Students were
free from 7:00
p.m. until 10:00
p.m. on
weeknights and
allowed to stay
out until
midnight one
Saturday a
month.
In 1948, governance of the hospital was transferred to Sweetwater County and its name was changed to Memorial Hospital of Sweetwater County. The nursing school, which was funded by the state of Wyoming, was closed when the county assumed ownership of the hospital. In 1978, the hospital moved to its present location at 1200 College Drive in Rock Springs.