Fort Stanton Marine Hospital, established at the old military post in Lincoln County, New Mexico, in 1899, was the first Public Health Service sanatorium devoted to merchant marine seamen suffering from tuberculosis. With the advent of new drugs to control this dreadful disease and the federal reorganization of national health programs, the hospital was closed and transferred over to the State of New Mexico in 1953. During its 54 years, Fort Stanton Hospital was a well organized and lively community for the medical staff and employees, their families and the patients. For Lincoln County, the sanatorium was an economic boom.