By Colleen Meyer

A walk through St. Mary’s Mission in Stevensville is a walk through history. The mission was established in 1841, 48 years before Montana attained statehood.

It was Sept. 24, 1841, when Jesuit Fathers Pierre Jean DeSmet, Gregory Mengarini and Nicolas Point, along with three Jesuit brothers, arrived in what is today known as southwestern Montana’s Bitterroot Valley. They established a pioneer settlement immediately west of the present town of Stevensville. The new mission was named St. Mary’s.

The Jesuits brought Catholicism to the Salish Indians.

News that the Jesuits, known as the “black robes,” had arrived in the area spread, and within a short time, Indians from other tribes came to visit. Achapel 30 by 60 feet replaced a smaller one that became inadequate. Father DeSmet went to the West Coast and returned with cattle, swine and poultry, the Bitterroot Valley’s first. Soon afterward, he went to St. Louis to obtain people who would help St. Mary’s. Then he left for Europe, on a quest for recruits and money to benefit new missions in the Northwest.

Among those recruits was Jesuit Father Anthony Ravalli, who arrived at St. Mary’s in 1845. He was Montana’s first physician, surgeon and pharmacist, and he built the area’s first gristmill and sawmill.

In 1846, construction of a still larger church began, but before its completion, the mission closed amid problems between the Salish and the Blackfeet tribes. In 1850, John Owen bought the barns, buildings and mills from the Jesuits for $250. The former mission site became Fort Owen, a trading post.

Sixteen years later, in 1866, Father Joseph Giorda, Jesuit superior for the Rocky Mountain area, called Father Ravalli and Brother William Claessens to re-establish St. Mary’s Mission, this time about a mile south of Fort Owen. Brother Claessens built a little chapel, the fourth he had constructed for St. Mary’s, and attached a study, a dining room, a kitchen, and a barn. Father Giorda established the “new” St. Mary’s as the Jesuit mission headquarters for the Rocky Mountain region. In 1879 an addition to the front of the building doubled the size of the chapel.

Today, the entire mission complex has been restored to reflect its condition in 1879, the peak of its beauty.

Remembered mostly as the first of many missions in the Pacific Northwest, St. Mary’s was much more: It was the first pioneer village in all of Montana. Here the first gardens and crops were grown, with the help of Montana’s first irrigation ditches. Other Montana firsts in this part of the territory were the harvesting and grinding of wheat, the raising of cattle, the sawing of logs and the construction of clapboard buildings.

Today the chapel with attached living quarters, Father Ravalli’s cabin and the pharmacy are furnished with items that he made by hand. The Salish frequently visit the Indian burial grounds in St. Mary’s Cemetery.

Historic St. Mary’s Mission Inc. is a 501c3 nonprofit dedicated to the preservation of buildings constructed between 1861 and 1879. Tax-deductible donations may be sent to Historic St. Mary’s Mission Inc., P.O. Box 211, Stevensville, MT 59870. School or group tours may be scheduled by calling 406-777-5734 or by sending e-mail to stmary@cybernet1.com.


Colleen Meyer is the director of Historic St. Mary’s Mission.


Published in The Montana Catholic Online, Volume 26, No. 7, July 16, 2010.