Christmas Party 1925

Men With Guns

Baseball Player

The Fort Stanton Community

                While a civilian work force was a part of Fort Stanton since the early days of the military garrison, the full development of the Fort Stanton community occurred following the creation of the Marine Hospital.  The philosophy of the early Surgeons in Charge of the hospital was to create a unique environment in which the isolated patients suffering from tuberculosis would not feel estranged from the world.  They set in motion the creation of large working farm, ranch, and recreational facility that grew up around the hospital.  An increased need for a civilian work force also required homes for the families that were not officers or nurses with the Public Health Service.  Many adobe shacks “sprang up” around the hospital to house workers, many of whom were Hispanic. 

                A burgeoning community of patients and workers also brought children into the equation.  Every effort was made by the residents and staff at Fort Stanton Hospital to create an environment that felt more like home than a patient care facility.  To create such a place along the banks of the Bonito River was no small task, but the introduction of a library, movie theatre, a swimming pool, and community celebrations brought a sense of both family and community to the hospital.  A post office, church, a social club, and the construction of a golf course made Fort Stanton seem more like its neighboring communities of Lincoln and Capitan than a military fort or a hospital.  Nearby Fort Stanton cave also provided a means for adventure and mischief for kids that few other communities could provide.  The very isolation of Fort Stanton became a strength rather than a weakness to most of its residents.     

                It appears clear that most people enjoyed their experience at Fort Stanton, and many mourn the passing of its “heyday” from 1902 to 1953.  Former residents still gather each year for reunions at the annual “Fort Stanton Live” event in August. 

“In the winter, when it snowed, was a great time to enjoy the out-of-doors.  Down by the garage area there were old Model-T trucks.  These trucks were discarded and no longer usable.  But the roofs were still good.  So, as boys, we took the roof of a truck and cut it in half, front to back.  The result was a perfect toboggan as the roof had been partly curved.”  -Willett White, from Children of Fort Stanton, ed. James McBride. 

“The Fort Stanton Cave was an attraction we could not resist.  Three were stories of ambulatory patients from the hospital that got lost in the cave and had to be rescued.  Four of us boys spent a whole day in the cave and believe we were the farthest into the cave of anyone at that time.  We believe we found a dam that the Indians made to back up water to prevent being followed.  We signed our initials above the waterline about five or six feet up, and came out.”  - Willett White, from Children of Fort Stanton, ed. James McBride. 

“When I came home for Christmas in 1941, I was invited to a party.  Dr. Kunkel had returned to Fort Stanton as commanding officer and it was to his home that I was going.  Mrs. Kunkel was having a party for her daughter and had asked some of younger people to the party.  When I went I fell in love, something I had not expected.  The daughter was most wonderful and lacking anywhere else to go we went to the Midnight Mass at Father Moline’s Catholic Mission Church at Fort Stanton.  The next Christmas I gave JoAnne Kunkel and engagement ring and asked her father for her hand.”  -Willett White, from Children of Fort Stanton, ed. James McBride. 

“One of the forms of family entertainment in the evenings was the Wednesday night movie.  Jack Shaw was our faithful, dedicated projectionist who gave our little community weekly films that never failed to draw a good crowd with many youngsters occupying the front seats.”  -Dr. Albert C. Rood, from Children of Fort Stanton, ed. James McBride.   

“My basic salary for my professional work was only $160 dollars a month, but we had so many fringe benefits it should not have been so distressing to me.  Fringe benefits included well furnished quarters, utilities, steam heating and laundry.  Milk and meat were very inexpensive, horseback riding and golf were available at no charge.  We had more than enough social life with card parties and dances and movies once a week with an admission fee of only twenty-five cents.  Even a haircut was only thirty-five cents, and was done expertly by a convalescing [patient].”  -Dr. Albert C. Rood, from Children of Fort Stanton, ed. James McBride. 

“A youngster with imagination and initiative could find many exciting things to do and places to go.  It was the same with our parents…Families living at Fort Stanton had to acquire a taste for outdoor life.  Picnics and camping were popular and so were the frequent outings at a bend in the creek not far up the Bonita.  Food was plentiful and the campfires brought forth the best of songs and stories.  As a child can you imagine the thrill of toasting marshmallows or wieners over a blazing campfire while listening to the tall tales and singing of the old folks.” 

-Eugene A. Merrell, from Children of Fort Stanton, ed. James McBride.   

“In the summer I was privileged to ride with the Cowboys when they went out of the range to bring in the calves for branding and so forth.  Every Fourth of July, there was a rodeo, which attracted many neighbors in the surrounding communities to compete in the games.  They had booths with fun things to do as well as a wonderful barbecue…There was a local baseball team composed of people who worked at Fort Stanton.  The team competed with neighboring communities.”

-Virginia (Moore) Fagan, from Children of Fort Stanton, ed. James McBride. 

“The movies were all first run, although, for all we knew, they may have been a little late.  The patients went on Monday and Thursdays, and working personnel went on Tuesdays and Fridays.  If we heard there was a particularly good comedy with the feature, say, Laurel & Hardy, we would sometimes climb up the roof on the back porch and look in the windows that were usually open in summer.  That way we got to see the comedy twice and we were able to practice a little one-upsmanship on the other kids when they went to the regular showing.  An enterprising patient bought a popcorn machine and sold popcorn to the crowd waiting for the doors to open.”  -John Sellars, from Children of Fort Stanton, ed. James McBride. 

“I recall the stables.  I rode horses a lot; the cowboys saddled the horses for me and I wandered the countryside by horseback.  I picked pinions and found a cave with stalactites and stalagmites, and also Indian arrowheads…I had a good friend at the Post office, Joe Gentry, who let me go through the coins to begin my coin collection.  I remember fresh bread from the bakery weekly and walking home with the fresh smelling bread and being able to eat the end crust piece nice and hot.”  -Nancy (Jensen) Payman, from Children of Fort Stanton, ed. James McBride. 

“Fort Stanton had a good baseball team, and the baseball field was on the road to the hog pens and had grandstands.  According to Dick Cox, his father got the baker’s job (and quarters) not because he knew anything about baking but because he was a fine ballplayer.”  -Danna (Henderson) Kusianovich, from Children of Fort Stanton, ed. James McBride. 

“I went to school through the 8^th grade at Fort Stanton.  There were two rooms in the small framed building with grades 1-4 in one room and grades 5-8 in the other.  The grade divisions weren’t structured and you could participate in other classes.  By the time I was in 5^th grade I’d read every book in school…In 1946 I was the spelling bee champ and competed in El Paso, going out on the word acolyte.” 

                  -Danna (Henderson) Kusianovich, from Children of Fort Stanton, ed. James McBride. 

“Fort Stanton was actually a kid’s paradise; we would ride bicycles, swim at the swimming hole in the creek near the hog pens, and hunt quail and doves.  We were all in the Boy Scouts; Ray Baker was the scoutmaster and took us on many camping trips.  Tommy Gould had a motor scooter and I did too and we would ride for hours on those old Cushman Scooters…We would go hunting during hunting season, and fishing on Nogal Lake and the Ruidoso River when we could con some grownup into taking us.”  -Jimmie Thompson, from Children of Fort Stanton, ed. James McBride. 

One of the earliest baseball teams

Kids fishing at Bonito Lake

Cowboys Branding