1920
Spirit River and District Museum
This wheel chair is from Spirit River’s first hospital. A private hospital was started in 1920 in the Maloney Building by Mrs. Binkley, with her daughters Pleasant Binkley, RN and Mrs. C.L. Race. They operated it as a two-bed hospital for about three years. Thereafter, there was no hospital until 1931. In the interim, Mrs. Elizabeth Young, RN with two other nurses lived in Prestville in the summer and nursed in Edmonton during the winter. Hospitals were an important part of early communities, and settlers did not hesitate to establish them in communities of a certain size. The legacy of these early hospitals has continued and many of these same communities now boast large modern medical facilities.