Togus VA Medical Center is a facility operated by the United States Department of Veterans Affairs in Chelsea, Maine.
[1] The 134-room Togus Springs Hotel was built on the site in 1858 by Rockland granite dealer Horace Beals.
[1] Beals constructed a stable, large pool, bathing house, race track, and bowling alley on the site in an effort to duplicate the success of the Poland Spring Hotel.
[1] Togus began operations on October 6, 1866 (1866-10-06) as the Eastern Branch of the National Asylum For Disabled Volunteer Soldiers.
[6] President Ulysses S. Grant visited Togus on August 13, 1873 to review the men who had served with him during the Civil War.
[7] Large crowds arrived on weekends to observe baseball games, military band concerts, opera house performances, and a zoo including antelope, bear, buffalo, deer, elk, chimpanzees, and pheasants.
On July 8, 2010 a veteran, with ongoing health issues, had an armed confrontation with police and a Maine game warden in a wooded area of the campus after calls were placed to authorities regarding gunshots.