The Arkansas State Tuberculosis Sanatorium was established in 1909 about 3 miles (5 km) south of Booneville. Once fully established, the sanatorium was the relocation center for all Arkansans with tuberculosis. By the time the facility was closed in 1973, it had treated over 70,000 patients. The main hospital, named the Nyberg Building after Leo E. Nyberg, a former sanatorium patient and state legislator, who sponsored the bill funding the construction, was completed in 1941. The facility became known worldwide as one of the most successful and modern hospitals for the treatment of tuberculosis of its day.