Built of rounded logs to more or less match the historic buildings on the property, the visitor centre has a gift shop and knowledgeable staff. It is from here that tour guides will lead one out on a tour of the mission, complete with historic sketches of each building and stories about each of the principals involved in the construction and operation of the mission. The centre is stocked with informational literature on, not only the mission, but other stops of interest in the Bitter Root Valley and beyond. Also in the visitor centre are several curios and artefacts preserved from the days when the mission was in operation.
Don't forget to sign the guest book while you're there. You'll find it on the desk. just inside the entrance.
Visitor Center
Located at the northeast corner of the mission complex, the Visitor Center was constructed in 1996. The walls are of round logs painted dark brown. The building includes 2,112 square feet and the first story rises to a height of 10 feet. It rests on a slab and stone foundation. Asphalt shingles cover the gable roof. The main visitor entry is on the south elevation at the east end. There is a fixed window divided into three portions, each with eight lights and mullions flanking the door on the west. A like fixed window, divided in two portions, flanks the entry's east side. Each portion has eight lights and mullions. The window surrounds and mullions are painted white. There is a second entry on the west end. Both doors open onto a porch that spans the length of the building. Two sets of five steps lead from the sidewalk to the porch. Square posts support the roof. A small pediment projects from the roofline to shelter each set of stairs.
The building's east elevation has one fixed centered window, divided into three portions; each has eight lights, and white mullions. The window surround is painted white and the window head is slightly arched, imitating the window heads on St. Mary's chapel. The porch railing wraps around the corner to form a ramp for handicap access. There on no openings on the north or west elevations.
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.