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Fear led to Montana's sanitarium for TB patients
November 14, 2002 -- By Evelyn Boswell, MSU Research Office
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| Built by convicts, this pavilion at Montana's Tuberculosis Sanitarium incorporated turn-of-the century open-air treatment for Montana's tubercular patients. Patients were exposed to pure, cold air for up to 24 hours a day. Photo courtesy of the Powell County Museum, Deer Lodge. |
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Milk, fresh air and sunlight were all part of the treatment if you had tuberculosis and lived in a Montana sanitarium during the first part of the 20th century, a speaker said recently at the third annual conference on Medical History of the American West.
People used to think that tuberculosis, like consumption, was a non-contagious, hereditary disease. Those who had it were considered intelligent and spiritual and could live as invalids in the loving care of their families.
But doctors finally realized that consumption and TB were not the interchangeable terms they'd been during the 19th century and that TB was actually a bacterial infection, said Connie Staudohar, adjunct professor in the Honors Program at Montana State University-Bozeman.
Since TB was contagious, Montanans became afraid and started discriminating against tubercular victims, Staudohar said. Officials began regulating the conditions that contributed to tuberculosis. Their fear led to the creation of a state sanitarium where patients received specialized – but isolated – care.
"It satisfied the drive both to coerce and cure," Staudohar said of the sanitarium that rose up near Warm Springs, relatively close to Butte where the death rate from TB was more than twice the national average.
"No other Montana town was nearly as lethal (or deadly) as Butte," Staudohar commented.
The State Tuberculosis Sanitarium at Galen was built on 40 donated acres next to the Montana State Hospital and admitted its first patient in 1913. Twenty months later, it had 115.
"Sanitariums were very different from hospitals. So were the patients," Staudohar noted. "They were isolated from their family and community, and the doctor was the ultimate authority. People could be there for months or years. The average stay was 300 days."
One result of that extended isolation was a sanitarium subculture with its own newspaper, brand of black humor and slang, Staudohar said.
Treatment emphasized clean, fresh air and high altitudes, so patients slept outdoors no matter what the temperature. They could come into the reception room during storms, but otherwise, they were only allowed in closed rooms while dressing.
The sanitarium started admitting children in 1924, Staudohar said. Direct sunlight was an important part of their therapy, so they started out with five minutes of direct sunlight and worked up to an hour. Besides perfecting their tans, they napped from 1 to 3 p.m. everyday and went to bed at 9 p.m. Nutritious food was very significant, as was "happiness."
The number of patients at Galen rose during the 1920s and 1930s, but chemical cures and other factors led to the sanitarium's decline, Staudohar said. As the public grew complacent, the sanitarium finally closed July 1, 1993.
TB may no longer seem a frightening threat, but Montanans today can learn from seeing how epidemics were handled, said Herbert Swick, executive director of the Institute of Medicine and Humanities in Missoula.
Staudohar said TB "reminds us that earlier generations dealt with disease as well as they could with unproven methods."
"Epidemic Diseases in the Early American West" was the theme of this year's conference on medical history. A speaker there, Swick said TB, smallpox and influenza were three major diseases that helped shape Montana's history. The conference was held Oct. 29 at MSU's Museum of the Rockies.
Evelyn Boswell, (406) 994-5135 or evelynb@montana.edu
Hi-Resolution Image or PDF Available:
| [View or Download] | 1. | Built by convict labor, this sleeping pavilion at Montana's Tuberculosis Sanitarium incorporated the turn-of-the-century treatment that emphasized patient exposure to pure, cold air for up to 24 hours a day. Photo courtesy of the Powell County Museum, Deer Lodge. |
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