Landscapes

Notes from the Artist:

A number of Montanans have heard of St. Peter's Mission.  Some folks even know the location, but few comprehend the extent of the programs presented at St. Peter's by the Catholic Church around the turn of the century.  In 1865, the Jesuit Priests chose a site to establish a mission in a valley southwest of present day Great Falls.  East of the valley was a rocky prominence known as the Bird Tail.  The new mission was consecrated and named St. Peters.

After a shaky 10 years, the mission had a fresh start and in 1875, a small log church and new cabins were constructed a quarter of a mile from the original mission site.  In 1880, the first stone building was erected on Mission grounds. 1884 marked the year when the Ursuline Sisters established their order at the mission.  The Indian School for girls opened  the next year, and in 1886, a fine new schoolhouse was donated to the Sisters.  1887, the construction of the new convent was begun.

As enrollment grew, new buildings were added to the existing Mission structure. The Girl's Academy, the Priests' and Boys' residences, the church and others were made from local materials.  The wood was logged in the forests of the Belt Mountains.  The stone came from quarries north of the Mission site.  In 1912, the Ursuline Sisters moved their Girls' Academy to Great Falls.  Sadly, after the Sisters' move, the main buildings of the stone convent and the school at St. Peter's were destroyed by fire.

When you stand, as I did, in the place where once there was the music of the organ, the laughter of children, and the magnificent stone buildings gleaming in the sunlight, it is not difficult to see this wonderful, historical mission in your mind's eye and picture the activity that made St. Peter's the center of this part of Montana all those years ago.  The only chapel now standing at St. Peter's site is a small white building in the middle of an open field.  The whispers of the past are made all the more poignant by the absolute peace and serenity blanketing this lovely valley of the Bird Tail.

Barbara Coppock

Information taken from "The Bird Tail" by Sister Genevieve McBride, O.S.U.

  hand colored etchings by Barbara Coppock             Back to Map ....