St. Mary’s Mission - History

HISTORIC PLACES ST. MARY’S MISSION

Historic St. Mary’s Mission stands in the shadow of St. Mary’s Peak in the Bitterroot Valley of Montana. Fr. Pierre De Smet, a Jesuit priest, founded the Mission in 1841. The State of Montana grew from those early beginnings of the settlement first called St. Mary’s and later named Stevensville. The town holds the distinct honor of being the place “Where Montana Began”. The well-preserved buildings and artifacts of the Mission Complex afford visitors a look back at the historical beginnings of the birth of the State and the settlement of the West. Listed in the National Register of Historic Places, St. Mary’s Mission is a cultural and historical icon of the early days of the American West. Historic St. Mary’s Mission, Inc., continually strives to strengthen ties with, and acknowledge its roots in Native American culture, while preserving the area’s delicate past for future generations. Formed in 1988, Historic St. Mary’s, Inc., is a non-profit organization. The goal of the organization is to preserve, restore, maintain and promote the Mission Complex founded in 1841 by Jesuit priests under the leadership of Father Pierre Jean DeSmet, S.J. The town of Stevensville and the State of Montana were formed from these early beginnings. The Mission is administered by a seven member Board and operated by a Director. Volunteers serve as tour guides, grounds keepers, clerical workers and see to the operation of the gift shop. The maintenance and operation of the Mission is reliant on donations, tour fees, gift shop sales and grants. Programs such as the $2 A Month Club also help support operating costs. For travelers and local visitors alike, the old Mission affords a look back to the State of Montana’s earliest beginnings - the place where agriculture, medicine, education and religion were first introduced. The Mission Complex is open for tours from April 15 through October 15. Groups and school tours are always welcome. The web site provides a “tour” for those unable to visit in person. Here you will find photos, the history of the Mission Complex, and discover the roles the Salish people, Fr. DeSmet and Fr. Anthony Ravalli, S.J. played in its development.

Photo provided

The history of St. Mary's Mission begins with the arrival in the Northwest of twenty-four Iroquois Indians employed as trappers by the Hudson's Bay Company. During the 1823-24 season, twelve of these Iroquois remained among the Salish (Selis) in the Red Willow (now Bitterroot) Valley. They were adopted into the tribe and married the Salish women. The Iroquois came from a nation that had been introduced to Christianity some two hundred years earlier. When they gathered around the campfire in the evenings with the Salish the Iroquois talked about white men who wore long black gowns, carried crucifixes, did not marry and whose practice it was to instruct people, bringing them to know God and all things to enable them to live after death. The Salish, together with their neighbors the Nez Perce, became so interested in these stories that between 1831 and 1839 they sent four delegations to St. Louis to obtain a Black Robe to live among them to teach them all these things to which the Iroquois referred. On September 24, 1841, Father Pierre Jean DeSmet, together with his fellow Jesuit missionaries, Fathers Gregory Mengarini and Nicolas Point, and three Lay Brothers arrived in the Bitterroot Valley with their belongings and supplies in three carts and a wagon, the first vehicles to enter the area. They established the first white settlement in what was to become Montana, on the east bank of the Bitterroot river, immediately west of the present town of Stevensville. The new mission, as well as the river and the tallest mountain peak to the west, were named "St. Mary's". Fifty years later the name of the river was changed to "Bitterroot" by the Forest Service. The first chapel, 25x33 had two galleries to accommodate an entire tribe. Fr. DeSmet made a trip to Fort Colville and returned with supplies to get through the winter, along with wheat, oats, potatoes and garden seeds for the first crops. The news of the Black Robes’ spread and within a short time Indians from many tribes came, forcing a larger church to be built, which was built a few hundred yards east of the river. Father DeSmet returned to St. Louis, he then left for Europe to seek recruits and funds for the mission. One of his recruits was Father Anthony Ravalli, S.J., an Italian who arrived at St. Mary’s in November of 1846. He was Montana’s first physician, surgeon and pharmacist. He was also an architect, artist and sculptor. He built the first grist and saw mill. Religion classes were held twice a day. There were classes in reading, writing and arithmetic taught in the Salish language. The Indians were taught to plow, plant, cultivate, irrigate and harvest crops and to tend cattle, sheep, pigs and poultry. A larger church was under construction in 1846, but problems with the Salish’s enemies, the Blackfoot, ended in a temporary closure of the Mission. John Owen, a former army sutler, bought the improvements for $250.00. Should the Jesuits return within two years the mills and fields would revert to them. When they were unable to return by the designated time, the Jesuits sent word to burn the church to save it from desecration. The former mission site became Fort Owen, a trading post. It wasn’t until 16 years later (1866) when Father Joseph Giorda, called back Father Ravalli and Brother William Claessens and re-established St. Mary’s Mission about a mile south of Fort Owen. Brother Claessens built a little chapel to which he attached a study, dining room, kitchen and a story and a half barn. Father Giorda made the new St. Mary’s the Jesuit mission headquarters. In 1879 an addition to the front of the building doubled the size of the chapel. Today the mission complex includes the restored chapel/residence, Father Ravalli’s log cabin/pharmacy and Chief Victor’s cabin (now a Salish museum). DeSmet park offers picnic facilities and a replica of a Salish encampment, the cemetery where Father Ravalli is buried and the Indian burial plot. A Visitor’s Center was added in 1996 and houses a gift shop as well as a research library, art gallery and museum that features some of Father Ravalli’s hand tools and farm equipment as well as historical documents and photographs. Recently added is a replica of the first two-wheeled carts. The carts carried belongings and supplies for the first group of Jesuits as they were escorted by the Indians to the Bitter Root Valley in 1841.