A black and white photo postcard showing an unidentified woman sitting on the porch of the Copper Queen Hospital with a blanket over her lap and a pillow behind her back, circa 1912. The front caption on the top in white reads “COPPER QUEEN HOSPITAL”. The postcard is unused, and the publisher is unknown. Mary Powers Loftus Collection.

In 1900, the Copper Queen Consolidated Mining Company built the first hospital next to the Rucker mine. There was no room for expansion at this location, so the Copper Queen Hospital was moved to Lowell in 1909. Twenty years later the underground mining operations threatened the stability of the hospital, so a new hospital was built near the Copper Queen Dispensary. Over the years the doctors that practiced at the Copper Queen Hospital included: Dr. Frederick A. Sweet – Chief Surgeon, Dr. George A. Bridge, Dr. Robert Ferguson, and Dr. Thomas Watkins was a company doctor from 1908 to 1934. The Copper Queen Dispensary also provided medical care and medicine to miners and their families. It was built on the original site of the Goldwater and Castaneda Store. For this care, miners paid a monthly fee. It was constructed in 1910 and then moved to its current location in 1914 while the old dispensary building was taken over by the Cochise Publishing Company who printed the Bisbee Daily Review.

1994.30.6a