Redwood Area Hospital history

Honner, born May 21, 1831, in New York was also an important “first” pioneer; he was one of the first county commissioners, the first Register of Deeds, the first Assessor, first postmaster, and first president of the Redwood County Agricultural Association which operated the fair.

In 1862, the payment due in April did not arrive until August 29th, a day after the War had begun.

The land that is Redwood Falls today was opened up to settlement in 1864, two years after the United States-Dakota War.

In 1869, he built a large home near the bottom of the Redwood Falls-North Redwood hill.

The Minnesota Valley Railroad made its first commercial run in 1878.

Thomas Hosken was a stone cutter from Cornwall, England who joined the firm in 1886, turning production to monument work.

In 1887 he took watch repairman Alvah R. Roebuck on as a partner, moved the business to Chicago and put out a mail order catalog.

Shortly after arriving, he bought the mill, and later installed the first electric light system in 1898.

In 1903, he dammed the Redwood River for more power and created Lake Redwood.

Within the first year, full capacity was reached, and, in 1954, a new 102-bed wing was dedicated to care for the influx of patients.

By 1960, another new 140-bed wing was completed and the Intensive Care Unit and Physical Therapy department opened.

In 1968, Sequoia became one of the first hospitals in the state to open a psychiatric unit.

Doctors performed the hospital’s first coronary artery bypass surgeries in 1977, and the Cardiac Rehabilitation department opened.

The first percutaneous transluminal coronary angioplasty was performed in 1980, making Sequoia a known leader in innovative cardiac care.

The Health & Wellness Center opened in 1993.

In September 1996, Sequoia Healthcare District residents voted to affiliate Sequoia Hospital with Dignity Health, the largest not-for-profit hospital provider in California.

In 2000, Sequoia celebrated 50 years of caring for the community.

In 2007, an agreement between Sequoia Healthcare District and Dignity Health financed the hospital’s rebuild, as Dignity Health assumed ownership.

In 2008, The Joint Commission certified Sequoia’s Stroke Care program and the hospital’s first robotic surgery was performed using the newly acquired da Vinci Surgical System.