The Old Mission

(Cataldo, ID) Hi 99 Lo 63 -- We haven’t done a thing since we got here on Saturday, so today we drove about two miles to Coeur d’Alene’s Old Mission State Park. On the way we took a quick drive through Cataldo, and I do mean quick. The town (village?) consists of one restaurant and a few houses.

Then it was back west on I-90 one exit to the Old Mission.



It's amazing that a building built in 1853 is the oldest building in Idaho. In the northeast last summer and we saw buildings that dated to the 1600’s.  It took 200 years to settle Idaho enough to finally construct a building.

The Old Mission on the right, and the Parish House on the left.


The Mission was built by the Jesuits to minister to and convert the Coeur d'Alene indians to Christianity. It was built without nails or screws. It's held together by wood dowels that were hand-carved by the indians.












The Parish House was where the Jesuits lived and held meetings.












The inside of the Mission is beautiful.


The candle holders and some of the decorations were made from metal cut from tin cans.

The designs on the ceiling are starting to wear away, but they're still fairly visible. The blue color is from blueberries.



I loved the two old organs against the back wall.

The main study in the Parish House where the Jesuit leaders would conduct their business with merchants and the indians.



There’s not much around this area and it was very hot, so we  returned to the RV to stay cool.

See you tomorrow.