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Show i 00CKXX I Piorveer Missions I' J in Moriteurva ! S There is no name more closely identi- l fled with the history of the civilizing of the territory embraced within the ! boundaries of Montana than that of Father Ravalli. Priest, physician, me- I chunic, engineer and architect, his ; work was of such a varied nature and i fie excelled in so many varied lines ! that his name is one which is con nected with almost every movement in the early settlement of western Montana. Mon-tana. Proud, indeed, should be the xiunty that is honored by his name, y and proud would be the g-entle priest , if he knew that this honor had been bestowed upon him by the jieople of Montana, for Ravalli county, tne county of the Bitter Root, is the very m region that was particularly dear to the pioneer priest whose first work in Montana Mon-tana was in the valley that now forms "th principal portion of t'he country that bears his name, and whose life was ushered out in the very shade of the mount of i-t. Mary, which was so particularly dear to him. His monument monu-ment rises from the plain within the shadow nf this mountain "dear old Saint Mary's." he used to call it but n.i shaft of marble is needed to pre-Bcrve pre-Bcrve In the people of western Montana Mon-tana the memory of this saintly old man, who gave the best of a life that was rich in attainment to the Bitter Root valley and its surrounding country. Jn the field in which Father Ravalli labored thre are three churches that wil! alw-os be identified with his name. j Isatural'y the first of these is the mis sion church at. Saint Mary's, near Steveii!-vi;k. This mission was founded found-ed in 1541, when Father De Smet and his few associates established the mission mis-sion under the shadow of the mountain " that bears still the name that these priest bestowed upon it St. Mary's. In 1S44 Father Ravalli arrived upon the Fcene. He was one of the volunteers who had responded to the call of Father Fath-er D. Smet. He reached the Bitter Root Hlky in the fan of JS44 and soon had in operation the ;first grist mill ever vonsM ueted in the northwest, .'-"hortly afterward he constructed a saw null, making his saws from wagon tires welded together. He worked ninong thf Indians of the Bitter Root fi'l the missionaries were compelled to abandon it in lSiiO, when he went to th" Coeur d'Alene mission and to St. Ignatius, returning in 1S66 to his favorite favor-ite Foot, the Bitter Root. In this year j lie designed and built the mission j rhurch at St. Mary's and there was! his home till the grim reaper called I mm in to the reward which awaited await-ed him. P.y reason of his preference for the field of St. Mary's mission and his special fondness for the Bitter Root valUy the mission church at St. Mary's will always be t'he one that is most closely identified with the memory of ,this great priest. The church proper is about 15x54 feet, one-storied, built of l"s and whitewashed. The front is dapboarded and has a square tower in the center, five feet square, surmounted surmount-ed by an open belfry, supplied with a . bell, and from the peak arises a white cross. This tower has long, latticed windows on three sides. Back of the main church building is a log addition lower than the church itself, and sti!! back of this is a third attached build-'iiig, build-'iiig, even lower than the first addition. J At the extreme end is a story and a I half log building, which afforded living ! quarters for Father Ravalli, Father I TAste and their associates. Father I 3'Aste is still living and is the only jne of that band of pioneer priests who survives. The church faces the east ind is in almost the very condition in hich the priest last saw it. ' 1 -! . I Across the Bitter Root range, locked in by rugged mountains, rich in historical his-torical associa tions, overlooking a beautiful beau-tiful valley and a magnificent river, is the Coeur d'Alene mission, named by the pioneer priests who founded it the Mission of the Sacred Heart. This mission was established in 1842 by priests who responded to the call of the Indians for a teacher of the new gospel. From what meager details are left in the records, it is believed that the church of the mission was built just after the priests were forced to leave St. Mary's Mission. The mission had been established for about eight years at this time. The church was designed de-signed by Father Ravalli, and was built by the priests and the Indians with meager tools and limited supplies. This church was built without a nail. The ' lack of nails was supplied by the slow and laborious process of boring holes and inserting wooden pins wherever it was necessary. This church is the ; most elaborate in design of any that are credited to the architectural skill of Father Ravalli, despite the fact that it was constructed under such unfavor- ab!e on; A;ons. It is built of logs, clap-boarded clap-boarded aift vhitewashed. It is ninety feet long and forty feet wide. On each , side are two rows of windows, four in i each row, the upper being close under the eaves. In front is a porch, thirty feet hifh, supported by round wooden columns on square base? The face of the building above the porch is symmetrical sym-metrical and somewhat ornamental. At each side, springing from the porch, is a pedestal bearing an urn, and above these are other urns, one on each side, from which springs an elliptic arch, whose central point is level with the gable of the roof. Above the point of this arch rises a white wooden cross. The location of this church is particu-' particu-' larly attractive. It overlooks from the slight eminence upon which it is built the Coeur d'Alene river and its beauti-I beauti-I ful valley, while beyond rises the rug- ged wall of the everlasting mountains, t It marks the artistic trait of the great ! designer. ' . I Largest of the three churches which j stand as monuments to the great priest j is that of St. Ignatius in the Mission ; valley on the Flathead reservation. This missionwas founded in 185C and the church was built by Father Ravalli in 1S62. It is 100 feet long and was formerly surmounted by a tower resembling resem-bling that of St. Mary's, but this was removed when the church was moved from its first location to permit the erection of the building. It is a plain j structure, built of logs, clapboarded and painted. , Large double doors form the entrance, surmounted by an oval transom, tran-som, which occupies the center of the facade. In the gable is a small window win-dow and under the eaves of the front of the roof are these words: "Norn est hie a Mud Nisi Domus Dei et Port a Coeli Gen. exxxiii., 5-17 "This is none other than the house of God and the gate of heaven." As the years have come and gone these churches have endured the ravages rav-ages of time and still stand as monu-ments monu-ments to the wonderful attainments of the remarkable man who designed and constructed them. At intervals they are still used for holy worship, and their walls echo to the same chants that sounded within their inclosures in the days when, remote from civilization civiliza-tion and friends. Father Ravalli labored la-bored patiently at the work which he had chosen in preference to other openings open-ings which gave promise of brilliant earthly recognition and reward. Who shall say that his final reward is not ' the greater for the noble sacrifice and i self-effacement that he assumed in carrying car-rying out his chosen work? 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