History

Here to Serve, Here to Stay: History of Grand Junction VA Medical Center

Since 1949, Grand Junction VA Medical Center (VAMC) has served the Veterans of western Colorado, eastern Utah and southern Wyoming with award-winning patient care and incredible support from its communities. 

VA ADAPTS TO SERVE WORLD WAR II VETERANS

During the Second World War (1939-1945), VA hospitals struggled to meet the needs of Veterans returning home. In 1944, VA announced it would increase capacity for the 12,000 service members already returning from overseas. At the time, an estimated 500,000 Veterans — ranging from the Civil War (1861-1864) to World War II — were eligible for VA health care. However, the full impact of World War II on its 16 million U.S. Veterans was not projected to peak until 1975.

It was undeniable, VA needed about 150,000 more beds, and in 1945, announced a massive construction initiative to add 29 new facilities nationwide. However, with the influx of soldiers returning home from war, this number would be inadequate to meet the need.

By 1946, VA reassessed that over 80 hospitals were needed. These facilities differed from their mostly rural predecessors in that smaller hospitals were proposed in urban areas to foster partnerships with nearby medical schools. This proximity to larger medical communities allowed VA to conduct research that would benefit Veterans. 

Although Grand Junction was considered rural, it was included in the expansion initiative. In 1945, the city sold the new hospital site, 40 acres of land adjacent to Lincoln Park, to VA for $1. 

The land once belonged to Senator Henry Teller (1830-1914), one of Colorado’s first U.S. senators, as part of his 230-acre farm. After World War I (1914-1918), the land sat mostly unused until the Works Progress Administration’s Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) initiative (1933-1942) set up one of two camps in Grand Junction. The Department of Grazing Camp (GR-2), which tended the land for agricultural purposes, erected barracks for its farm workers. When the CCC dissolved at the beginning of World War II, the unused land offered a serene location for Veterans to heal and rehabilitate.

Before Grand Junction VA Medical Center, no Veterans hospital existed to care for the roughly 35,000 western Colorado Veterans in the area, and the closest hospitals were often hundreds of miles away. The nearest VA hospital was in Cheyenne, Wyoming, about 350 miles northeast of Grand Junction. The Fitzsimons Army Medical Center in Denver cared solely for active-duty service members, so the only in-state option for Veterans was Fort Lyon in southeastern Colorado, nearly 400 miles away from Grand Junction. To remedy this lack of accessible care, the City of Grand Junction and VA began talks about building a state-of-the-art hospital to serve the Western Slope.

The new Grand Junction hospital was designed by VA and the U.S. Army, not an architectural firm, and included plans for possible expansion. In 1947, construction began. The plans resembled many other VA hospitals of the era, with a T-shaped main building and multiple outbuildings. Grand Junction’s plan included a 152-bed hospital plus thirteen ancillary buildings for housing, storage and utilities. 

Materials for the build were sourced from 22 states, including granite from Massachusetts and marble from Missouri. The original cost estimate was just north of $1.1 million. Still, after two years of rejecting construction bids, the Army returned to the drawing board to try and lower costs. Even with modifications, no construction company could meet the low price and the project was approved at a cost of $3.4 million.

U.S. Army Veteran Frank Cheney, who lost both legs during the attack on Pearl Harbor, was the honoree who turned the first soil at the groundbreaking on February 18, 1947. The hospital, the largest building in Grand Junction at the time, was completed in February 1949 and admitted its first patients on May 16.

CLOSURES THREATENED, COMMUNITY RALLIES

The Grand Junction VAMC’s first few years were a boon for area Veterans. Within the first year, over 1,000 patients had been treated and the numbers kept climbing. By 1952, expansions had already begun to provide additional labs and a recovery isolation area. 

In 1955, though, the future of the hospital remained uncertain.

Although the hospital had treated about 10,000 Veterans by 1955, the federal government aimed to trim its budget and shutter some VA facilities. The Grand Junction VAMC was targeted to be closed due to its smaller bed capacity and rural location. However, the community was quick to point out that the rural setting was a positive – not a negative – and closing the facility would harm the 35,000 Veterans who relied on its services. Thanks to the Western Slope communities and VA advocating for Grand Junction’s hospital to remain open, the decision to close was overturned. 

For the next decade, the hospital continued to grow and provide excellent care to Veterans, but once again, federal budgetary cuts threatened another closure. The proposed closure stemmed from President Lyndon B. Johnson’s Great Society initiative where the federal government sought ways to fund new programs focused on reducing poverty, including Medicare and Medicaid. One solution was to reassess VA facilities and close those deemed unneeded. On the chopping block were 11 VA hospitals plus four domiciliaries and 17 regional offices, which were all to close by the summer of 1965.

In January 1965, it was announced that the Grand Junction VA Medical Center was one of the VA facilities that would close. This made little sense to area Veterans as the hospital was fully staffed in 1963 for the first time since opening and had won VA’s top rating for service and safety in 1964. Again, the community rallied to keep their cherished hospital open.

The local community and Colorado politicians came together to save the hospital. Veterans organizations, local farmers and everyday citizens participated in letter-writing campaigns to challenge the closure and state representatives worked to pass a bill that would prevent the hospital’s shutdown. Washington, D.C., heard the call. By May 1965, President Johnson understood the importance of the Grand Junction hospital and proposed keeping it open indefinitely, much to the relief of area Veterans and the community.

IMPROVEMENTS AND EXPANSIONS

Throughout the rest of the 1960s and 1970s, improvements were made to the facility and its programming. By 1970, a surgical residency program had started and the old service kitchen on the fourth floor was converted into a therapeutic plant room. The rest of the 1970s saw the introduction of an alcohol-treatment program, construction of a new pulmonary lab, coronary and respiratory care units, and a nursing care wing. 

By 1985, over 2.3 million Veterans from World War I to the Vietnam War (1955-1975) were eligible for VA health care. Grand Junction VAMC continued to grow throughout the 1980s to keep up with the rising number of Veterans. Whereas the need for inpatient care had declined, the demand for outpatient care was increasing, leading the hospital to propose a remodel and expansion to accommodate this shift in care. The 88,000-square-foot, $8.6 million project was completed in 1988 and provided a new ambulatory care unit, exam rooms, admissions and mental health.

Throughout its history, Grand Junction VAMC has innovated and adapted to serve Veterans with disabilities. In the hospital’s early years, the municipal lake at Lincoln Park was used for hydrotherapy treatment and recreational therapy for fishing. Local lodges even donated animal hides to the VAMC for occupational therapy leatherworking. The 1980s, though, saw increased VA recreational therapy for those with mobility issues and Grand Junction VAMC moved to the forefront of the initiative with adaptive sports. 

Grand Junction VAMC’s recreational therapy staff brought about premier adaptive sports events for Veterans through events such as wheelchair basketball, golf, bowling and downhill and Nordic skiing. Their innovations led to the establishment of the National Disabled Veterans Winter Sports Clinic in 1986. Every year since 1987, except in 2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic, hundreds of Veterans living with limited mobility due to physical and neurological conditions, have headed to the Rocky Mountains to participate in the annual Winter Sports Clinic hosted by VA and Disabled American Veterans (DAV) in Snowmass, Colorado.

Learn More about the National Disabled Veterans Winter Sports Clinic

Throughout the 1990s and 2000s, Grand Junction VAMC focused on expanding access to the more rural parts of the state. Transportation to the VAMC was difficult for those with mobility issues and for Veterans who lived in areas without public transportation. In 1977, a van to assist with Veteran transportation was established in Glenwood Springs and with the help of the local DAV chapter, the program expanded its service area and van fleet in 1997 to include Moffat, Routt, Rio Blanco, Eagle and Pitkin Counties. A decade later, telehealth was introduced, with Veterans in Craig, Colorado, being the first to try it. By 2009, telehealth had expanded to reach Veterans in Garfield, Eagle and Pitkin Counties. 

Grand Junction VAMC’s campus received major renovations throughout the 2010s. In 2012, a $13 million expansion project improved the surgical units, including pre- and post-operation care, plus sterilization. In 2016, the parking garage was completed. It stands where the original manager’s home and nurses housing from the 1940s stood until 2011. When Grand Junction VAMC adopted the “Whole Health” system implemented by VA, new rehabilitation and wellness centers opened on the campus in 2018. In 2022, the Mesa Center for Recovery, an inpatient rehabilitation facility for substance use disorders, opened.

Grand Junction VAMC has grown to become more than a hospital. It is the center of VA Western Colorado Health Care System, which includes VA clinics in Glenwood Springs, Craig, and Montrose, Colorado, and Moab, Utah. The system spans 18 counties and serves approximately 37,000 Veterans. To serve rural Veterans, VA Western Colorado Health Care System has established several community-based outpatient clinics (CBOCs). The Major William Edward Adams VA Clinic, originally the Craig VA Clinic, opened in 2007 and was renamed in 2015. In 2010, a CBOC opened in Moab, Utah, and after five years, the Moab VA Clinic relocated to its Main Street location in 2015. Glenwood Springs VA Clinic opened in 2014; and the Montrose VA Clinic was opened in 2015.

TODAY AND BEYOND

Since the 1940s, the need for a VA hospital to serve the Veterans of western Colorado, eastern Utah, and southern Wyoming has been evident. VA is committed to caring for and supporting Veterans of the Western Slope through exceptional health care, outreach, research and programming. 

The staff of VA Western Colorado Health Care System and the Grand Junction VA Medical Center have had the honor of serving Veterans from different generations and campaigns. Through the dedicated VA staff and community support, the mission to provide outstanding health care for Veterans will continue well into the future.