St. Mary's Mission Historic District

By editor

Stevensville, Ravalli County, Montana, September 1841

When the Salish people sent four delegations all the way to St. Louis to ask for "Black Robes" to come and teach them, they were likely expecting something a bit more impressive than Father Pierre-Jean DeSmet and a handful of exhausted Jesuits who arrived in the Bitterroot Valley in the fall of 1841. The Salish, having heard rumors of the powerful medicine these men possessed, welcomed them with open arms. DeSmet, never one to miss an opportunity for a grand gesture, promptly established St. Mary's Mission, the first permanent white settlement in what would eventually become Montana.

The Jesuits set to work with a zeal that was entirely disproportionate to their numbers. They built a chapel, a pharmacy, and a grist mill, introducing the Salish to the dubious benefits of European agriculture and medicine. Father Anthony Ravalli, who arrived in 1845, was a man of many talents: a physician, an architect, and a mechanic. He designed the buildings, treated the sick, and generally made himself indispensable, proving that a man with enough skills can make a living even in the middle of nowhere.

The mission thrived for a time, a curious oasis of European civilization in the wilderness. The Jesuits taught the Salish how to farm, and the Salish taught the Jesuits how to survive the winters. It was a mutually beneficial arrangement, at least until the Blackfeet decided they didn't much care for the new neighbors. The constant threat of raids, combined with the general difficulties of maintaining a mission hundreds of miles from the nearest supply line, eventually took its toll.

In 1850, the Jesuits decided they had had enough of the Bitterroot Valley and sold the mission to Major John Owen for the princely sum of $250. Owen, a man who recognized a bargain when he saw one, turned the mission into Fort Owen, a trading post that served the valley for the next two decades. The Jesuits returned in 1866 to rebuild St. Mary's, but the valley had changed. The miners and settlers had arrived, bringing with them the usual assortment of vices and diseases that always seem to accompany progress.

Today, the St. Mary's Mission Historic District stands as a quiet reminder of those early days. The buildings have been restored, the grounds manicured, and the history neatly packaged for the benefit of tourists. You can walk through Father Ravalli's pharmacy and marvel at the primitive medical instruments, or sit in the chapel and imagine the sound of Salish voices singing hymns in Latin. It is a peaceful place, far removed from the struggles and hardships of the men who built it, which is exactly how we prefer our history.

See also

• St. Mary's Mission Historic District at Stevensville, Ravalli County (Erected by Montana Historical Society)
• Fort Owen State Monument, the trading post that replaced the original mission