Site of Sanitarium of Alonzo Orrin Scarborough (1860-1952) Pioneer Doctor

A 1906 county biography adds what the plaque leaves out. It calls Scarborough's Snyder drugstore the first in that part of the country and credits him with introducing the first X-ray machine in western Texas. He was medical examiner for seventeen life insurance companies and owned the O and U ranch, about 8,000 acres in Garza and Kent counties. His studies ran from the Missouri Medical College in St. Louis in 1884-86 to a New York Polyclinic course in 1898-99, and his father kept a hotel in the new town.

What the plaque says

Site of Sanitarium of Alonzo Orrin Scarborough (1860-1952) Pioneer Doctor (1860-1952) Born in DeWitt County. Moved to Snyder in 1881 and worked on ranch as a horse trainer. Soon began "reading" medicine and started practice here in 1886. Received M.D. degree from the Kentucky School of Medicine in 1889. During his life-long career in Snyder, he made many calls on horseback, often traveling miles alone at night. Was chief railroad surgeon, 1909, and first county public health officer. Ran Scarborough Sanitarium--first in county--1910-1912. Practiced until age 90. Married Nancy Goodwin in 1886. Had 3 children: Ione, Hugh, Enid. (1969)

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• Scurry County Museum — 2.5 mi
  Snyder's county museum on the Western Texas College campus, with the rifle used to shoot the white buffalo, an 1878 chuckwagon and the millionth barrel of the Canyon Reef oil boom.
• Heart of West Texas Museum — 23 mi
  Colorado City's museum in a restored downtown house, from a mammoth dug up at Lake Champion in 2001 to an Ice Age bison and the wartime telegrams sent to a local family.
• National WASP WWII Museum — 32 mi
  Hangar 1 at Avenger Field in Sweetwater, where the women of the WASP trained to fly every aircraft in the Army's arsenal in World War II, then waited thirty-three years to be called veterans.

More markers nearby

• Site of Store of William Henry (Pete) Snyder — steps away
• Site of The MacKenzie Trail — steps away
• Santa Fe Railway in Scurry County — steps away
• Scurry County's Canyon Reef Oil Field — steps away