Kremmling in Grand County, Colorado — The American Mountains (Southwest)
Middle Park Medicine
Photographed by Cosmos Mariner, July 28, 2025
1. Middle Park Medicine Marker
For early settlers in these isolated mountains, medicine was generally a do-it-yourself business. The nearest doctor often lived a day's travel or more away, leaving patients to depend on folk treatments, Indian herbal cures, and the unsure prescriptions of part-time practitioners. A trained physician named Susan Anderson (“Doc Susie”) served mainly eastern Middle Park, but doctors were only sporadically available in the western part of the region until 1926, when Dr. Archer Sudan moved to Kremmling; Sudan spent the next twenty years practicing out of a makeshift hospital in his home. Though far more effective than the frontier healers he replaced, Sudan still had no remedy for the region's daunting distances, substandard equipment, and isolation. Those afflictions continued to plague Middle Park until the 1973 opening of Kremmling Memorial Hospital, whose modern facilities and services at last took local medicine off the critical list.
Dr. Ernest Ceriani
You knew if you had a crisis there was no help and no consultation.
—Dr. Ernest Ceriani
Kremmling practitioner Ernest Ceriani gave a face to rural medicine in a 1948 Life
this page online
[photo captions]
• Dr. Archer Sudan came to this area in 1926 for a fishing vacation. When a local resident overheard he was a doctor, she ushered him off to a family medical emergency. The emergency cut short his vacation but began a twenty-year career serving the citizens of Kremmling and Middle Park.
• In 1951, the Rocky Mountain News reported that Dr. Susan Anderson had delivered over half of Fraser’s 350 residents. Here, “Doc Susie”
Courtesy W. Eugene Smith/TimePix
2. Marker detail: Dr. Ernest Ceriani
More than half a century after Life Magazine profiled Dr. Ernest Ceriani, the images from that article still resonate in the collective memory of the American public as the face of rural medicine.
Erected 2002 by Colorado Historical Society, Colorado Department of Transportation, and Federal Highway Administration.
Topics and series. This historical marker is listed in these topic lists: Science & Medicine • Settlements & Settlers. In addition, it is included in the History Colorado series list. A significant historical year for this entry is 1926.
Location. 40° 3.547′ N, 106° 23.598′ W. Marker is in Kremmling, Colorado, in Grand County. It is at the intersection of Park Avenue (U.S. 40) and 2nd Street, on the right when traveling west on Park Avenue. The marker is near the sidewalk at the southwest corner of the Kremmling Chamber of Commerce and Visitor Center grounds. Touch for map. Marker is at or near this postal address: 203 Park Avenue, Kremmling CO 80459, United States of America. Touch for directions.
Regionally, this marker is in the Colorado High Rockies and on the Continental Divide. It is also in the American Mountain West. Globally, it is in North America, the Rocky Mountains, the Western Hemisphere, the Western World, and the
Photographed by Cosmos Mariner, July 28, 2025
3. Middle Park Medicine Marker
Looking south; Park Avenue crosses in the background. This historical marker is the rightmost of two panels on the north side of the Kremmling’s Colorado History interpretive kiosk.
Other nearby markers. At least 3 other markers are within walking distance of this marker: Kremmling (here, next to this marker); Wildlife Conservation (here, next to this marker); Replica of the Statue of Liberty (a few steps from this marker).
Related markers. Click here for a list of markers that are related to this marker.
Also see . . .
1. Doc Ceriani (Grand County History Stories).
Excerpt: Dr. Ernest Ceriani was a graduate of Loyola Medical School and served his internship at St. Luke’s Hospital in Denver. In 1942, he married a nurse, Bernetha Anderson, and joined the Navy, serving until 1946. He began a surgery residency in Denver, but was unhappy with city life, city medical practice and its politics. He came to practice in Kremmling in 1947, working for the Middle Park Hospital Association. The Association had purchased the home of the previous doctor to remodel and serve as a hospital; it employed 2 nurses as well as the young doctor. The doctor was general practitioner, seeing patients in office, hospital, and home, often as far away as Grand Lake.(Submitted on January 8, 2026, by Cosmos Mariner of Cape Canaveral, Florida.)
2. Doc Susie - Mountain Pioneer Woman Doctor (Grand County History Stories).
Excerpt: Susan Anderson graduated from High School in 1891. Very rare for the time, Susan pursued an education in medicine and graduated from the University of Michigan and started practicing in the mining towns of the area.(Submitted on January 8, 2026, by Cosmos Mariner of Cape Canaveral, Florida.)
In her 30's Susan contracted tuberculosis and came to the Fraser Valley in hopes of a cure in the clear mountain air. Not only did she regain her health, but she he practiced medicine from 1909 to 1956 in Grand County, a total of forty-seven years.
People in the area were very poor and seldom paid in cash. They usually gave her meals for payment. This suited her fine because she did not like to cook or keep house, which was always messy. Because the railroad ran beside her shack, she often would be called to various parts of the county, even at night. Doc. Susie would flag down a train and ride wher ever she needed to go, free of charge. She also treated the men working on the railroad and their families in Fraser and Tabernash, which was about three miles northwest of Fraser. Around 1926 Susan became the Coroner for Grand County.
3. Dr. Archer Sudan, M.D.: Doctoring in Middle Park from 1926 to 1947 (Ski-Hi News).
(by Barbara Mitchell) Excerpt: Archer Chester Sudan was born on a farm in Sioux Falls, S.D. in 1894. While still quite young, he discovered a talent for healing mainly of sick or injured farm animals. The notion of medicine as a career led him to leave his family and move to Chicago to live with a married sister where he attended high school and college. To support himself, he worked as a barber and as a summer harvest hand in the Dakotas. He received his bachelor’s degree and a master’s degree from the University of Chicago and later graduated from Rush Medical School. Upon graduation in 1925, Sudan came west to intern at Denver General Hospital.(Submitted on January 8, 2026, by Cosmos Mariner of Cape Canaveral, Florida.)
His first interest was teaching and research, but in 1926 his life took a major turn when he came to the mountains of Colorado to fish the area around Kremmling. As he was chatting one day with local druggist, C.C. Eastin, about potential fishing holes, a woman hurried in. She had four little ones at home, all ill with acute tonsillitis. Gathering his medicines from his tent at the edge of the Colorado River, the young doctor hurried to their house to treat the youngsters. Before long, other neighbors made their way to his tent.
Credits. This page was last revised on January 8, 2026. It was originally submitted on January 5, 2026, by Cosmos Mariner of Cape Canaveral, Florida. This page has been viewed 66 times since then. Photos: 1, 2. submitted on January 7, 2026, by Cosmos Mariner of Cape Canaveral, Florida. 3. submitted on January 8, 2026, by Cosmos Mariner of Cape Canaveral, Florida.
