History · St. Ignatius

St. Ignatius’s history is mostly unwritten

The public archives hold no old photos of St. Ignatius yet. The rest are in attics, shoeboxes and the historical society. Help start the collection.

0old photos & papers

1historic places

5famous people

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What stands out about St. Ignatius’s past

Read from the archive, the National Register and the record. The page puts what stands out first.

A history waiting to be writtenNo old photos of St. Ignatius are in the public archives yet. The rest are in attics and albums.Old housesHalf of St. Ignatius’s homes were built before 1959.

★ What stands out · Help out

Start St. Ignatius’s collection

The first neighbors to add old photos shape how St. Ignatius’s history is told.

Decades since 1900 with photos

00s10s20s30s40s50s60s70s80s90s

0 of 10 decades. The empty ones are waiting for someone’s album.

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The story

How St. Ignatius came to be

From Wikipedia’s history of St. Ignatius.

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It was named for and is the site of the St. Ignatius Mission, established by Fr. Pierre-Jean De Smet, a Belgian Jesuit Catholic missionary who worked for his entire career in the American Midwest and West. The mission is listed on the National Register of Historic Places. In July 1919 the town was all but wiped out by raging forest fire. Only a bank, one store and a hotel, remained standing.

Text from Wikipedia, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0.

Timeline

St. Ignatius, 1854 to 1947

Woven from the archive, the National Register and the people born here.

19th century
1854BuiltSt. Ignatius Mission is built
20th century
1904Born hereD'Arcy McNickle is born here
1924Born hereDan Taulbee is born here
1947Born hereDiane Sands is born here

By decade

St. Ignatius, decade by decade

Today1 recent

2013Mission Mountain range viewed from the NBR

On the National Register

1 historic place in St. Ignatius

The country’s official list of buildings and places worth saving.

place listed

National Historic Landmarks

none yet

historic buildings protected

each building in a district counts

first listed

1973

St. Ignatius Mission

in Montana

#85

by listings

Buildings

St. Ignatius MissionBuilt 1854

National Park Service, National Register of Historic Places. Photos from Wikimedia Commons, credited on each place’s page.

Famous people

5 famous people were born in St. Ignatius

Writers, athletes, leaders and more, ranked by how widely they’re known.

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Diane SandsAmerican politician · b. 1947

D'Arcy McNickleAmerican writer · b. 1904

Shelly FyantAmerican politician

Dan TaulbeeComanche painter · b. 1924

Merle Eugene ManisPh.D. University of Oregon 1966 · b. 1934

Memory lane

What the archives can’t tell you, neighbors can.

Town Square →

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From Wikimedia Commons (1), Wikidata (1), the National Register of Historic Places (1), Wikipedia and Wikidata for famous people. Archive images are copied here with their credits and licenses, shown on each photo’s page. Refreshed monthly.