St. Ignatius Mission was established by Jesuits in 1854 in what is now St. Igantius, Montana. The church was built in 1891 on the Flathead Indian Reservation, serving a population including some the of Confederated Salish and Kootenai tribal members who call the reservation home now. In an out-of-the-way rural location roughly an hour north of Missoula, off Route 93, the church continues to draw visitors from all over the world to see its remarkable series of 58 frescoes handpainted by the Mission's cook, Br. Joseph Carignano, a self-taught artist.

During our family's recent vacation stay nearby, north of St. Ignatius and south of Flathead Lake outside the town of Ronan, we visited the church and then nearby Mission Falls and Mission Reservoir. They're both in the foothills of the Mission Mountains which run north to south along the eastern edge of the Flathead Valley. Most of the Mission peaks are in the 7,000-foot range, though some rise higher than 9,000 feet.

I knew to expect mountains, but not gorgeous church frescoes in Montana. Here's a shot I took which partially reveals the sweep of the artwork inside St. Ignatius.

A close-up of one, depicting St. Joseph carring baby Jesus; note the teepee in the foreground:

Looking back toward the entrance, light streams in through the stained-glass windows.

In a boosterish local publication out of Bigfork, Montana called The Lake County Journal, writer Jan Krause has an informative piece on the history of St. Ignatius Mission and the frescoes. In American Profile, a magazine "celebrating hometown life," Alice Ross has more on St. Ignatius

After viewing museum-like exhibits in the historcal outbuildings on mission grounds, we set off to find Mission Falls, nestled at the base of the nearby Mission Mountains which dominate the valley's vistas. At the longhouse community center in St. Ignatius I was walking toward the building from my parked car as a Native-American guy also approached. He gave me a continuing look that might be thought of a "hard," so I figured I had better state my business directly. He turned out to be perfectly helpful and friendly, if not effusive - giving me detailed directions to the falls and answering a few questions about the region. I noticed he didn't engage in direct eye contact, which I've read is somewhat of a taboo among many Native-Americans. So we both sort of stood side by side, gazing out at the horizon, talking about the land. It felt very, ah, Western.

From St. Ignatius, you drive north from just east of the community center, on Foothills Road, to Mission Dam Road, where you turn right and proceed east, eventually going straight through a bucolic six-way intersection on a one-lane bridge, then past the big Mission Reservoir on the right, and on several miles via a bumpy, gravel surface deeper into the woods until you can drive no further. When you get out in the shaded parking area, you'll hear Mission Falls right away.

I've been to a lot of beautiful waterfalls in Washington and Oregon but this one was different from most. You could get closer to the source at a shorter distance from the falls than is typical, by safely perching on a huge rock right above where the rushing creek tumbles into the falls. It was a fine place to enter into a Zen-like trance.

On the way back, we stopped to bask briefly in the still and peaceful aura of the Mission Mountains, from the shores of Mission Reservoir, where picnic tables, shaded grassy areas and swimming invite longer stays.

Driving back north along bucolic Foothills Road toward our rental in Ronan, we exchanged friendly waves with a man sporting a bushy beard, black hat and old-fashioned garb and riding a bicycle in the opposite direction. He must have been one of the traditionally-inclined Amish, Mennonites or Hutterites whose colonies dot the state. We had bought a naturally-raised Montana Hutterite chicken at the Harvest Market in Ronan and cooked it up for dinner a night earlier. Quite scrumptious. The (Anabaptist) Hutterite sect has 49 colonies in Montana; and live fully self-suffiicient and pared-down lives, in accordance with their religious beliefs. They make their own clothes, furnishings and build their own homes; and raise chickens, other animals and produce, and sell eggs - a great many eggs, actually - as part of their well-developed business operations.

Hutterite chicken is highly-regarded. As Blaine Harden notes in a Washington Post Montana travel essay published earier this month, it graces the tables of some the trendiest restaurants in Montana, a state where an ongoing influx of "New Westerners" seeking greater quality of life accents sharp demographic variances in the population.

UPDATE: My son Max has a new post up at his blog, about our trip to Montana. There's a dog he'd like to introduce you to, for starters.

TECHNORATI TAGS: MONTANA, TOURISM, VACATION, ST. IGNATIUS MISSION, FRESCOES, MISSION FALLS, MISSION RESERVOIR, MISSION MOUNTAINS, HUTTERITES

Posted by Matt Rosenberg at August 31, 2006 01:22 PM

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