Jesuit priests and lay brothers founded St. Mary’s Mission, the first mission in the Northwest, near this site in 1841. The Jesuits closed the mission in 1850 and returned in 1866. For the next quarter century, they helped the Salish adapt from hunting to farming as the buffalo disappeared, and they supported and advocated for the Salish while providing medical services and spiritual guidance to both Indians and whites. In 1891, when the U.S. government forced the impoverished Salish from the Bitterroot Valley to the Flathead Reservation, St. Mary’s closed. An influx of homesteaders led to the creation of St. Mary’s Parish in 1910, and the old mission church reopened. In 1911, the Salish returned to St. Mary’s to celebrate their Bitterroot heritage, beginning a tradition they still maintain. The historic district includes the 1866 church and pharmacy designed by Father Anthony Ravalli, who also designed Idaho’s Cataldo Mission and adapted European ecclesiastical architecture to the remote frontier through log building techniques. Chief Victor’s log home, the Indian burial ground, Saint Mary’s Cemetery, Father Ravalli’s grave, and two gnarled apple trees reflect the Salish presence, Ravalli’s legacy, and the Jesuits’ agriculture. The new St. Mary’s, built in 1954 with donations from Montana and beyond, was an unprecedented preservation effort to save the endangered mission church from deterioration through constant use. Today, the old and new churches together define a historic complex significant to both Indian and white communities.