History | VA Sheridan Health Care | Veterans Affairs

SHERIDAN VA MEDICAL CENTER Since April 1922, the Sheridan VA Medical Center has been a mental health care and primary care facility for men and women who have served our country in the Armed

Forces. The medical center is in the city of Sheridan, in north central Wyoming, on 298 acres at the base of the Bighorn Mountains. In 1898,  President William McKinley set aside the land

where the Sheridan VA Medical Center now stands as the site for a military fort. After it was built, the fort was named for Brigadier General Ranald Slidell Mackenzie, a Union officer during

the Civil War who later served on the Western frontier. The first troops posted to the fort in 1901 were “Buffalo Soldiers” from the Army's 25th Infantry regiment, one of 6

African-American infantry and cavalry regiments that served with distinction. They disbanded in 1948 when President Harry S. Truman signed an executive order that ended segregation in the

U.S. military.    By the start of World War I, the government closed the fort with the intention to demolish it. Instead, former President William Howard Taft, who was appointed Chief

Justice of the U.S. Supreme Court a few years after he left the White House, transferred the fort to the Bureau of Health. The plan was to turn the fort into a hospital for Veterans coming

home from World War I with battle fatigue, which we know today as post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). The new hospital opened in April 1922 with 300 beds. By the end of World War II, more

than 20 years later, the facility had 900 beds. Today the Sheridan VA Medical Center has 185 beds and serves more than 12,500 Veterans every year. In addition to the medical center, the VA

Sheridan Healthcare System also has 8 community-based outpatient, telehealth, and outreach clinics located strategically across Wyoming. Each clinic, along with the medical center, provides

a wide range of medical and mental health services. Learn more about the history of Veterans Affairs