This historic district encompasses two separate settlements which were in close proximity, St. Paul's Mission and the Hudson's Bay Trading Post nearby. Their historical significance is due to their being the the first non-native inhabited sites in the area. The district is situated just northeast of the Kettle Falls bridges over the Columbia River, on St. Paul's Mission Road, off Highway 20/395.
By some accounts, the first building was erected on this site in 1838 by French Canadian Friars Francis N. Blanchet and Modeste Demers, who held the first Catholic Services between the Rocky and Cascade mountains. A more permanent structure was completed by the natives by May of 1846. The first resident priest was Fr. Peter De Vos, who remained until ill health forced his retirement. A more substantial timber structure was built during his tenure.
Frs. Joseph Joset and Louis Vercruysse took over the mission and ran it during the 1850s. Temporarily Closed in 1858, it reopened in circa 1863, but its value as a mission was declining, partly due to a dwindling local native population and partly due to the opening of another mission at what is today the city of Colville. The final known services were held at the mission in either 1868 or August 14, 1875, depending on the source.
The mission fell into disuse and disrepair until, by 1901, half the roof was gone, the windows, doors and floor were gone and the cross at the peak of the roof had fallen. In the the late 1920s Jesuit Frs. George Weibel and Joseph Tomkin began to promote restoration, but neither interest nor money were forthcoming.
At a centennial service in 1938, interest in saving the mission was awakened, and restoration began in 1939, under the leadership of Father Georgen. Ownership was transferred to the state of Washington in 1951 and to the National Parks Service in 1974, which has maintained it ever since.
The mission was entered in the National Register of Historic Places in 1974.
Text from the plaque, followed by an excerpt from the National Parks Service:
Father Anthony Rivalli visited Fort Colvile in 1845 - nearly twenty years after it was established. He led the Indians of the Kettle Falls area to build a small chapel of rough logs and brush. By 1847 that chapel had been replaced by a sturdy hand-hewn log church with priests' quarters. The portage road that began at the boat landing below Kettle Falls passed just in front of the church on the way to Fort Colvile.
The church was an active cultural and social center. In regular use until the early-1880s, it became a victim of changing times.
In 1939 the structure was restored to its present condition - a monument to the mission era of the northwest frontier.
St. Paul’s Mission is a monument to much more than the proselytizing efforts of Jesuit missionaries in the 1800’s. The mission stands as a reminder of the Indians it was built to serve and the effects of Westward expansion on the indigenous people of the Northwest.
In about 1826 the Hudson's Bay Company (HBC), British fur traders, set up Fort Colvile on a point next to Kettle Falls (the waterfall - the town did not yet exist) on the Columbia River and began to raise vegetables and grow grain to supply itself and other distant trading posts. Finding an adequate source of power in the Colville River at Meyers Falls, they proceeded to erect a gristmill in about 1830. It was built by a French-Canadian named Lapierre and rebuilt in about 1843 by chief factor Archibald McDonald (1771-1841). This gristmill for many years produced flour for HBC posts and, eventually, US Government outposts, as well.
In 1860 the Canada-US border was established on the 49th parallel. With this, the HBC found themselves in US territory and subject to tariffs when shipping goods to and from Canada. To alleviate this situation the HBC moved their operations to a new post just north of the border at Fort Shepherd, leaving the gristmill behind. The HBC officially ended occupation of Fort Colvile on June 8, 1871.