Community Medical Center

History

Community Medical Center A Brief History
The Missoula Community Hospital and its adjacent medical facilities stand as a gleaming monument to the dedication and vision of hundreds of Montanans and in particular two doctors who came west in the early 1900s

Situated on a grassy plain near historic Fort Missoula Community Hospital is part of a modern complex that includes a nursing home the Missoula Crippled Childrens Center and private offices

The story of Community Hospital begins with two brothers who were prominent in the early history of Western Montana medicine

Dr Charles Thornton known affectionately as quotDr Charlesquot came west in 1905 to begin a practice in Corvallis Montana At that time the mortality rate of spotted or quottickquot fever was 80 to 90 per cent Of the first 11 cases Dr Charles treated only one patient died He subsequently became known throughout the Bitterroot Valley for his ability to treat the dreaded Rocky Mountain Spotted Fever

An ardent sportsman Dr Charles was among the first to introduce Chinese and Hungarian pheasants to Western Montana He also imported and bred German shorthaired pointers to hunt the wily pheasants At one time he had more than 30 German pointers in his kennels Dr Charles also imported Belgian horses and brown Swiss dairy cattle

Dr Charles brother Dr Will Thornton quotDr Willquot came west in 1907 and started a practice in Stevensville Montana He had been a professor of anatomy and had worked with Dr J H Kellogg the surgeon who established the Battle Creek sanitarium in Michigan Dr Kellogg was the older brother of W K Kellogg who developed the corn flake into a multimilliondollar industry

Dr Will performed more than 15000 major operations in 36 years of active practice and he participated in the construction and operation of three private hospitals in Western Montana

In 1910 he built the first hospital in the Bitterroot Valley and ran it until 1917 when he moved to Missoula At that time he built the Thornton Hospital now the Thornton Apartments at the corner of Third and Orange Streets