Coeur d'Alene's Old Mission State Park is heritage-oriented in the

western United States The Western United States (also called the American West, the Far West, and the West) is the region comprising the westernmost states of the United States. As American settlement in the U.S. expanded westward, the meaning of the term ''the We ...

in northern

Idaho Idaho ( ) is a state in the Pacific Northwest region of the Western United States. To the north, it shares a small portion of the Canada–United States border with the province of British Columbia. It borders the states of Montana and Wyomi ...

, preserving the Mission of the Sacred Heart, or Cataldo Mission, a national historic landmark. The park contains the church itself, the parish house, and the surrounding property. Built in 1850–1853, Mission of the Sacred Heart is the oldest standing building in Idaho. It was designated a National Historic Landmark in 1961, and put on the

National Register of Historic Places The National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) is the United States federal government's official list of districts, sites, buildings, structures and objects deemed worthy of preservation for their historical significance or "great artistic ...

in 1966.

History

In 1831, the

Nez Perce The Nez Percé (; autonym in Nez Perce language: , meaning "we, the people") are an Indigenous people of the Plateau who are presumed to have lived on the Columbia River Plateau in the Pacific Northwest region for at least 11,500 years.Ames, K ...

and Flathead people had heard of the

Bible The Bible (from Koine Greek , , 'the books') is a collection of religious texts or scriptures that are held to be sacred in Christianity, Judaism, Samaritanism, and many other religions. The Bible is an anthologya compilation of texts ...

and wanted more information on

Christianity Christianity is an Abrahamic monotheistic religion based on the life and teachings of Jesus of Nazareth. It is the world's largest and most widespread religion with roughly 2.38 billion followers representing one-third of the global pop ...

. They sent six men east to

St. Louis St. Louis () is the second-largest city in Missouri, United States. It sits near the confluence of the Mississippi and the Missouri Rivers. In 2020, the city proper had a population of 301,578, while the bi-state metropolitan area, which e ...

with four arriving, and in 1842, Father

Pierre-Jean De Smet Pierre-Jean De Smet, SJ ( ; 30 January 1801 – 23 May 1873), also known as Pieter-Jan De Smet, was a Flemish Catholic priest and member of the Society of Jesus (Jesuits). He is known primarily for his widespread missionary work in the mid-19th ...

responded to the request and came to the area. Fr.

Nicholas Point Nicholas Point; (10 April 1799 – 4 July 1868), was a French Catholic priest, artist, and member of the Society of Jesus (Jesuits). He is known primarily for the drawings and watercolors he created during his missionary work in the mid-19th cen ...

and Br. Charles Huet came and helped to pick a mission location. The first chosen was along the St. Joe River and was subject to flooding. In 1846, they moved it to its current location. In 1850, the church was taken over by the Italian Jesuit missionary Antonio Ravalli, who began designing the new mission building. He had the building constructed by the Indians themselves, so they would feel part of the church. It was built using the

wattle and daub Wattle and daub is a composite building method used for making walls and buildings, in which a woven lattice of wooden strips called wattle is daubed with a sticky material usually made of some combination of wet soil, clay, sand, animal dung a ...

method and finished some three years later without using nails. The mission was named after the

Sacred Heart of Jesus The Most Sacred Heart of Jesus ( la, Cor Jesu Sacratissimum) is one of the most widely practised and well-known Catholic devotions, wherein the heart of Jesus is viewed as a symbol of "God's boundless and passionate love for mankind". This dev ...

and the spot was renamed the Coeur d'Alene's Old Mission State Park by the Coeur d'Alene Tribe. A misnomer locally is to refer to the whole mission as the "Cataldo" Mission. This term cropped up in the area due to the fame of Father Giuseppe Cataldo, a Sicilian priest born in the village of Terrasini, who spent most of his Jesuit life in the frontier community and founded

Gonzaga University Gonzaga University (GU) () is a private Jesuit university in Spokane, Washington. It is accredited by the Northwest Commission on Colleges and Universities. Founded in 1887 by Joseph Cataldo, an Italian-born priest and Jesuit missionary, the ...

Spokane Spokane ( ) is the largest city and county seat of Spokane County, Washington, United States. It is in eastern Washington, along the Spokane River, adjacent to the Selkirk Mountains, and west of the Rocky Mountain foothills, south of the Ca ...

. The nearest town to the mission is Cataldo, and with time, the mission became an important hospitality stop and supply station for traders, settlers, and miners traveling on the

Mullan Road Mullan Road was the first wagon road to cross the Rocky Mountains to the Inland of the Pacific Northwest. It was built by U.S. Army troops under the command of Lt. John Mullan, between the spring of 1859 and summer 1860. It led from Fort Ben ...

. It was also a working port for boats heading up the

Coeur d'Alene River The Coeur d'Alene River flows from the Silver Valley into Lake Coeur d'Alene in the U.S. state of Idaho. The stream continues out of Lake Coeur d'Alene as the Spokane River. Before the Bunker Hill Smelter in the Kellogg area, which mined lead a ...

. In 1976, a major restoration of the church was chosen as Idaho State's Bicentennial Project to celebrate the nation's bicentennial. 4]

Mission area

;Church Though they had few materials to decorate the church, they used ingenious techniques to beautify it. The walls were decorated with fabric bought from the

Hudson's Bay Company The Hudson's Bay Company (HBC; french: Compagnie de la Baie d'Hudson) is a Canadian retail business group. A fur trading business for much of its existence, HBC now owns and operates retail stores in Canada. The company's namesake business di ...

and hand-painted newspaper from Philadelphia that Fr. Ravalli had received in the mail. Tin cans were used to create the idea of chandeliers. Both wooden statues were carved by hand by Fr. Rivalli with nothing but a knife and were intended to look like marble. The blue coloring of the interior wood is not paint but a stain created by pressing local huckleberries into the wood. ''citation_needed''.html" ;"title="Wikipedia:Citation needed">''citation needed''">Wikipedia:Citation needed">''citation needed'' ;Parish house After being burnt down, it was rebuilt in 1887. It is a two-story building, the upstairs used for sleeping quarters, and the downstairs for daily activities. It contains a smaller chapel, mostly used for daily Mass. ;State park The surrounding property has two cemeteries, a nature trail, and a visitors center. The site became Old Mission State Park in 1975 through a long-term lease with the

Roman Catholic Diocese of Boise The Diocese of Boise ( la, Diœcesis Xylopolitana) is a Latin Church ecclesiastical territory or diocese of the Catholic Church in the northwestern U.S., encompassing the entire state of Idaho. It is led by Bishop Peter F. Christensen, whose sea ...

References

External links

Coeur d'Alene's Old Mission State Park
Idaho Parks and Recreation
Coeur d'Alene's Old Mission State Park Map
Idaho Parks and Recreation {{authority control History museums in Idaho State parks of Idaho Protected areas of Kootenai County, Idaho Museums in Cataldo, Idaho National Historic Landmarks in Idaho Native American history of Idaho Native American museums in Idaho Churches on the National Register of Historic Places in Idaho Protected areas established in 1975 1975 establishments in Idaho Former Roman Catholic church buildings in Idaho National Register of Historic Places in Kootenai County, Idaho Parks on the National Register of Historic Places in Idaho

History

Mission area

See also

References

Further reading

External links