National Historical Landmark-Fort Bayard Historic District

Established as an army post on August 21, 1866, by troops of Company B, 25th U.S. Colored Infantry under the command of Lt. James M. Kerr to protect the area of Silver City until 1899.

Buffalo Soldiers manned the post for these 33 years fighting in numerous Apache wars. The War Department on August 28, 1899, authorized the Surgeon General to establish a general hospital for use as a military sanatorium dedicated to the treatment of officers and enlisted men of the Army suffering from pulmonary tuberculosis contracted during the Spanish American-War (1898.)

In 1920 the War Department closed the sanatorium in a effort to consolidate services.

The Public Health Service briefly took control of the Fort until 1922 when the newly created Veterans Bureau moved into the Veterans Hospital Number 55.

Today, Fort Bayard Medical Center still operates as a long/intermediate-term and skilled-care facility that provides various geriatric and orthopedic services under the direction of the State of New Mexico Health Department.

Credits and Sources:

Information courtesy of the National Park Service.