TOWNSEND — A lot has changed in Townsend and Broadwater County over the past 120 years, but there is one thing that hasn’t—medical care provided locally. What is now known as Billings Clinic-Broadwater has a more than century-long history in Townsend. That locally-available care was especially important when 7-year-old Talon Evinger broke his arm while playing at school.
“I was hanging and I slipped, this arm hit first, and then this arm still wasn’t on the ground, and then it hit my arm down and it popped up,” Talon said, describing when he broke his arm.
The Billings Clinic Broadwater emergency room was just about a block away.
“Being able to have a clinic, a walk-in and an emergency room in our neighborhood, that’s pretty much priceless,” Talon’s dad, Jaeger Evinger, said.
Talon is not the first kid with a broken arm cared for at the hospital in Townsend. Although it has had different names, Billings Clinic Broadwater has a history in the area that stretches back to 1905 when doctors J.L. Belcher and G.W. Gilham set up a practice they called the Broadwater Hospital in a house on North Pine Street in Townsend.
In the 1940s, a new building was built and it was renamed the Broadwater Community Hospital. Then, in the 1980s, the current facility was built and there as another name change to Broadwater Health Center.
Most recently, in 2021, the hospital built a $5 million, 7,400 square-foot addition to 1980s building.
“It’s really humbling to have started with two doctors in a house doing house calls by wagon, horse and buggy, to what we have now,” Billings Clinic Broadwater CEO Justin Tiffany said.
Today, Billings Clinic Broadwater is a 25-bed critical access hospital, with an emergency room, primary care clinic, long-term care beds, imaging capabilities and a rehab team. With 89 employees, it is one of the largest employers in Townsend.
“I know that one of the paramedics—we are friends with their kids—she was there the whole time,” Jaeger said of Talon’s hospital visit for his broken arm. “Doctors are great, very responsive. There’s a personal touch to having care down here at the hospital.”
Talon was just one of thousands of patients seen and treat at Billings Clinic Broadwater. According to their numbers, Billings Clinic Broadwater saw 11,000 total patient visits in 2024, and is on track for 11,500 total patient visits in 2025.
“We have people who continue to come in here, maybe they’ve gone somewhere else for their care and they finally got around the corner to ‘you know what, I’ll check this facility out,’” Tiffany said. “And we hear amazing things.”
For Talon, the care he got helped him recover quickly, just in time for wrestling season.
“And then, I tried my hardest to get this!” Talon said showing off his wrestling medal. “And then I went to wrestling camp!”
