Mille Lacs Area Health Foundation

About

In the early 1950’s, the lack of available healthcare in the region had become an acute concern for the people of the Mille Lacs area. As a result, residents were becoming increasingly interested in building a hospital in Onamia, because of the great need for quality medical care that wasn’t so far away. The Crosier Fathers and Brothers (a religious order of the Catholic Church) were instrumental in deepening this conviction and encouraging action. When the state of Minnesota refused to give money to the project, passionate residents went to door-to-door in every neighboring community, collecting donations big and small from farming families, business owners, retirees and others. Fund raising was held in every community, as well as on the Mille Lacs Indian Reservation. The residents of the Mille Lacs area saw their dream come true when work on a new twenty-eight-bed hospital began in 1954.