Saint Paul's Mission

  St Pauls' Mission was established in 1845 by Jesuit Father Anthony Ravalli.  The Mission got it's supplies from the Hudson Bay Company on the river flat below the mission.  Priests would only visit sporadically because of the shortage of priests in the region.  Since most of the fur traders and freemen (former fur traders) were Catholic with native wives, there was always a flurry of activity when they arrived, baptisms, weddings, confessions, saying mass, translating scripture into the native language and teaching.
  Fathers Joseph Joset took up residence here in 1851 and soon Father Louis Veracruysse came up from the St Regis Mission near Chewelah to join him.  The mission was active for the next 30 years.  The mission was abandoned in 1885, Fort Colvile having been closed by Hudson Bay and the fishery being much diminished by salmon wheels on the lower Columbia.
  The mission building was restored in 1937.  When you visit, you can see how the French Canadian post-on-sill style works.  As timbers dried, they slid down groves in the posts and could be filled in at the top with new wood.  The structure is secured with wooden pegs which actually last longer that iron fasteners because they do not draw in moisture that condenses on metal and rots the surrounding wood.  There were few, if any trees nearby at the time of the Mission because they had been used for fuel.