When people speak about Marie Osborn, who founded the Salmon River Clinic in 1972 and worked as Idaho’s first nurse practitioner in Stanley, an immediate reverence enters their voice.

“She defined what it means to be a nurse practitioner in Idaho,” Dr. John Osborn, Marie’s son, said. Although he wanted to be a doctor since he was a young child, Osborn admitted his mom’s work ethic and principles influenced him as he grew up.

Now that it’s been 50 years since she opened the clinic and began providing essential health care to to an area hundreds of miles wide, Dr. Osborn looked back on his and Marie’s work with amazement. Growing up helping run the Central Idaho clinic exposed him to the harsh realities of providing rural, remote health care, Osborn said, and his mom showed him the kind of strength it takes to keep a small clinic running.

“We really struggled funding that clinic,” Dr. Osborn said. “I grew up struggling to figure out how we were supposed to provide health care in that part of Idaho.”

It’s a good thing that Marie was also an excellent administrator, according to Physician Assistant Amy Klingler, because she found ways to provide the funding the clinic needed. As a current health care provider at the Salmon River Clinic in Stanley, Klingler said it was an important moment when Marie and clinic board members established a local taxing district to fund the clinic.

Without tax money, Klingler said she and her coworkers would not be able to give their patients the same level of care they currently provide. Finding a solid source of revenue is just one example of Marie’s hard work that Klingler’s heard, and because people still come into the clinic to ask about Marie and share stories, she said she’s likely to get more.

“You can’t work at the clinic and not be aware of Marie,” Klingler said.

Marie’s influence is well earned, according to her son, Klingler and Sawtooth Search and Rescue Commander Gary Gadwa. Working under Marie for “many, many, many, many” years as an EMT, Gadwa said a lot of people owe their lives to the dedicated nurse practitioner.

Gadwa explained that to this day, it is very difficult to connect sick and injured people near Stanley and in the Sawtooth Forest with adequate medical care. The challenge was even more pronounced when Marie led the clinic, Gadwa said, mostly because she was the only medical provider around. She had to make herself available 24/7, which Gadwa said is hard to do when you live in the middle of a forest. Gadwa recounted Marie and her family lived more than a dozen miles from town. If she needed to get to the clinic during the winter for an emergency, which in Stanley often means traveling in below-zero temperatures and waist-high snow, Gadwa said Marie would get on her snowmobile and try her best.

Dr. Osborn remembered the days when his mom had to suddenly head to the clinic. The can-do, will-do attitude his mom portrayed in those situations played a huge role in the clinic not only staying operational, the doctor said, but also in expanding its services.

Because of Marie, the clinic was also the first place in rural, Central Idaho to provide ambulance services. Before Marie, Osborn said injured and sick people were driven in Forest Service station wagons to the closest medical provider.

Dr. Osborn couldn’t help but laugh as he remembered the surplus 1958 Pontiac ambulance that clinic board members purchased for $300 from the Mountain Home Air Force Base.

“There was a hole right below the passenger seat, so you could see the highway zooming below you,” Osborn said, fondly remembering the auto.

Although he provides care to veterans in Seattle these days, Dr. Osborn said his roots will always be in the Sawtooths. Part of that is because of his mom and the work she put into the area and the clinic that cares for people who live there.

The Salmon River Clinic has survived for 50 years because of his mom, Osborn said. His hope is the story the clinic shares with Marie gives future generations of rural health care providers a standard to meet.