After Congress opened the Flathead Reservation for homesteading in 1910 and set aside land for townsites, D’Aste was platted and became home to local settlers served by Thomas P. Quinn’s store and post office, while their children attended school there. By 1911, Jesuit priests from St. Ignatius Mission traveled by horse and buggy to conduct services at the Quinn home for the predominantly Irish Catholic community. In 1915, Reverend William O’Maley of Sacred Heart Parish at Ronan recognized the need for a mission church, and St. Joseph’s Church was built to serve area settlers through funds raised by church representatives, matching support from the Extension Society of Chicago, Illinois, and local farmers, and labor donated by Catholics and Protestants alike under carpenter Tom McDonald’s supervision. Oral tradition credits McDonald with its unusual Craftsman style design, one of only two churches built in this style in Montana, marked by half-timbering, decorative braces in the front gable, and wide eaves with exposed rafter tails. Bishop Carroll of the Diocese of Helena dedicated the church in May 1916, the last service was held in 1978, and St. Joseph’s remains the last physical remnant of the D’Aste townsite after the Helena Diocese transferred title to the nonprofit D’Aste Women’s Service Group in 1998 and, through the efforts of Mable Gallagher and family, it was placed on the National Register of Historic Places.