Old Missoula

St. Michael’s, First Church for White Settlers, Is Constructed at Hell Gate in 1863

The first church constructed for the white people in Montana was erected in 1863 at Hell Gate and was moved to Missoula about 1874. St. Michael’s Church was built of hewn logs by one of the brothers of the Hell Gate Mission, William Claessens. It was superintended by Father J. Caruana, a Catholic priest who stopped on his way to the Coeur d’Alene Indians in the summer of 1863.

This church in Missoula was among the first of the many Catholic buildings on three blocks of land in the heart of the city, including St. Francis Xavier Church, St. Francis Grade School, Loyola High School, Sacred Heart Academy, St Patrick Hospital and St. Patrick School of Nursing.

Father U. Grassi, the local superior of the mission, planned the church at Hell Gate and purchased the land for it. According to Father L. B. Palladino, S. J., author of “Indian and White in the Northwest,” a history of Catholic missions, St. Michael’s stood at Hell Gate near the brow of the north bank of the Clark Fork River, almost opposite the mouth of the Bitter Root River.

Father Anthony Ravalli, pastor of St. Mary’s Mission at Stevensville, is credited by Father Palladino as being the first resident priest for the church. He was said to have resided there about three years. His first religious recruit was a Mrs. Sims, whom he baptized in the little log church Oct. 1, 1866, with Gen. Thomas Francis Meagher and his wife as sponsors.

For years after the founding of Missoula, Catholics of the town walked, rode horseback or drove to Hell Gate to attend Mass on Sunday. Father Palladino’s account of the moving of the church to Missoula says that “By God’s disposition, the meanness of a man was instrumental in giving to Missoula residents priests.”

On Same Tract of Land

According to his story, a government surveyor found that St. Michael’s Church and a settler’s house were both on the same 40 – acre tract of land. “Though the fathers had the first right of entry, owing to priority of occupancy and improvements, theirs antedating the neighbor’s by several years, Father Menetrey (who was then pastor) waived his right and consented to the 40 acres in question being entered as part of the man’s claim, but by mutual agreement the man was to relinquish and deed over to the fathers that fraction of the 40 on which stood the church.”

But no sooner had the settler secured the patent to the ground than he ordered Father Menetrey off the premises. Both the church and the priest’s house were taken down and all the material was hauled to Missoula. The timbers of the priest’s house were sawed up for fire wood by the church was assembled again.

This apparently happened about 1874, although Father Palladino does not state the date in his book. It joined several other Catholic buildings, already here, including a frame structure housing St. Patrick Hospital and another housing Sacred Heart Academy. Both the hospital and academy have since acquired brick buildings.

Since the hospital had a chapel where Father Menetrey could conduct services, St. Michael’s was set up near the hospital and made into a classroom for boys. It was later moved to its site behind the present Sacred Heart Academy building and converted into an infirmary for emergency cases among school children.

The building was remodeled at least a couple of times. The hewn logs were covered by lumber siding. The structure was damaged by fire once during the early days.