The only living apple tree in the Bitter Root Valley known to be older than this one is the crab apple planted in 1869 by Father Ravalli here at the mission. Both can be seen as very old as they have sustained considerable freezing and other damage, but continue to live, producing new shoots each year, as well as a few apples. This tree stands to the northeast of the Chief Victor Cabin and directly bhind the old chapel, somewhat separated from several trees to the southwest.
Today the original (contributing) components of the mission consist of the restored chapel/residence (Logs from the first mission were utilized to build the present church.), Father Ravalli's log house/pharmacy, Chief Victor's cabin, the cemetery, including Father Ravalli's grave, the Indian Burial Plot, and two trees, Father Ravalli's Crabapple Tree and Wolf River Apple Tree, as well as a stone survey marker marking the cemetery’s east boundary.
In order to preserve the original chapel a new church was built on the site in 1954. Beside it is the church's bell, hung in a stand alone bell tower. Both contribute to the historic district.
Wolf River Apple Tree
Father Ravalli’s Crabapple Tree and Wolf River Apple Tree (two contributing objects)
Both of these historic trees are of small to medium size with spreading canopies. Father Ravalli’s tree dates to 1869. Father Ravalli himself planted the crabapple tree and it is the oldest living apple tree in the Bitterroot Valley, where settlers later planted orchards during the Apple Boom. It serves as a reminder of the agricultural skills the Jesuits brought to the valley. The tree, although severely leaning, is all that remains of Father Ravalli’s extensive garden. Mary Ann Combs recalled her grandmother picking apples from the tree. Its sturdy, aged trunk still puts forth shoots and its buds, grafted onto rootstock, have produced numerous offspring in the Stevensville area.
Mary Ann Combs’ grandmother planted the Wolf River apple tree c. 1870s. Grafts from this and Father Ravalli’s tree form the small orchard to the north in adjacent De Smet Park and are the parent trees of many in the Stevensville area.
From the NRHP Nomination Form
The story of St. Mary's Mission begins in 1823, when twelve Iroquois, employed as trappers by the Hudson's Bay Company, remained with the Salish through the winter of 1823-24. Exposed to Christianity 200 years previous, they told the Salish stories of Christianity and of the "Black Robes", the missionaries who taught them. The Salish proved to be an interested audience and, between 1831 and 1839 they sent four delegations to St. Louis in an attempt to obtain a Black Robe of their own.
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 fathers built two chapels, residences and outbuildings, and began farming, planting wheat, oats, potatoes and garden crops. From Fort Vancouver they brought into Montana the first cattle, swine and poultry. A third chapel was under construction by 1846 but soon trouble with the Blackfeet forced the closure of the mission, the entirety being sold in November 1850 to John Owen, a former army sutler, for $250.00.
It was sixteen years later (1866) when Father Joseph Giorda, Superior for the Rocky Mountain area, 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, the fourth he had built for St. Mary's, 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 for the Rocky Mountain province. In 1879 an addition to the front of the building doubled the size of the chapel. (The entire Mission complex has been restored to that date - the peak of its beauty.)
The mission served the Salish people until their forced removal in 1891, during that time teaching them methods of farming and gardening to aid in their survival following the demise of the buffalo.
A Visitor's Center with gift shop, research library, art gallery and museum was built on the site in 1996.
Italicized sections above are from
St. Mary's Mission, Inc.