Old Mission State Park
Missions are more common further south in the USA where the Spanish influence was strongest, so it is a pleasant surprise to find a mission in the north of Idaho. Even more surprising, this mission was founded at the request of the Coeur d’Alene Indians unlike the southern missions that were imposed on the local population by the conquering Spanish. Between 1848 and 1853 Catholic Jesuit Priests and the Coeur d’Alene Indians built the Mission of the Sacred Heart, also known as Cataldo Mission. It is still standing and is now the oldest building in Idaho. The mission together with the adjacent parish house and cemetery became Old Mission State Park in 1975.
Kitchen of Parish House
The missionaries lived in the Parish House alongside the mission. The first two such houses burned down. In 1876 the mission found itself outside the boundaries of the Coeur d’Alene Indian Reservation, so a new mission was built at De Smet, Idaho. Rapid settlement of northern Idaho in the mid 1880s revitalised the old mission and in 1888 the current Parish House was completed. The picture shows the sparse but functional kitchen used by the missionaries.
Interior of Mission
Although the design reflected Father Ravelli’s Italian origins, the missionaries did not have the resources to build in stone. Instead the mission was built using a frame of local timber with wattle and daub panels. It was all held together with wooden pegs rather than nails. Father Ravelli hand carved the altar and used paint to make it look as though it was made of marble, a material that was impossible to so obtain in such a remote location. Other improvisation included the use of old tin cans to build chandeliers.
Parish House & Mission
The first mission church was established in the early 1840s on the St. Joe River about 56 kilometres (35 miles) south of the present site. The first church was prone to flooding so it was closed in 1846. This site overlooking the Coeur d'Alene River was already sacred to the Coeur d’Alene Indians and was free from flooding, so it was ideal for a replacement mission. The mission was designed by Father Ravalli, an Italian born Jesuit and over 300 Indians worked with the missionaries to build it. The Parish House, on the left of the picture, dates from 1888 and was restored in 1987 after the State Park was set up.
Mission Graveyard
The small number of headstones in the main cemetery at the Mission of the Sacred Heart give the impression that it was little used, but this is misleading. According to the records of the mission more than 300 people are buried here, but most were marked only by earthen mounds that have long since disappeared.
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