| Description |
In 1945 the United States and the world were just emerging from one of the most devastating wars in man's entire existence. The signing of the treaty with Japan at Yokohama Bay and the series of Big Three Conferences in Europe marked the beginnings of a new world-- a new balance of power. Now that the fighting had stopped, the world prepared to demobilize its war-time economy and dedicate itself to forging a lasting peace. In the United States, the Federal Government had turned its surplus installations over to War Assets Administration for conversion to domestic use. War Assets Administration announced that Bushnell General Hospital in Brigham City, Utah would be declared surplus. The people of Brigham City were shocked because they felt the United States Army had agreed to make Bushnell a permanent hospital when ten war ended. The Box Elder Chamber of Commerce conducted an heroic campaign to convince the Veterans Administration to use the facility as a hospital for the Great Basin region. The Veterans Administration relinquished its priority to the State of Utah who desired Bushnell as a center for all the welfare institutions in Utah. After studying not only the feasibility of establishing a welfare center at Bushnell, but examining the entire welfare program of Utah, the welfare commission decided to not bring the project to fruition. The $14,000,000.00 hospital remained a sore spot on the War Assets Administration books for some time. Finally Colonel Joseph A. Hill from Portland, Oregon, applied for Bushnell to establish a coeducational military academy. One thing prevented Hill from moving to take over the former hospital immediately-over $3,000,000.00 of equipment had been stripped from the facility when the army left. With the cooperation of the Box Elder Chamber of Commerce, Utah's representatives in Congress, the Governor of Utah, and the President of the United States, it looked like only a few weeks before Hill would gain the needed equipment and establish his school. |
