St. Francis Indian Mission

St. Francis Solanus Indian Mission is one of the earliest Ojibway (Chippewa) Indian settlements in Wisconsin. In 1796, John Baptiste Corbine, a French-Canadian fur trader, arrived at Lac Courte Orielles and established a trading post. Corbine is attributed with introducing Catholicism to the Lac Courte Orielles. As Catholicism grew, so too did the need for a local church. In 1881 the United States government granted Lac Courte Oreilles a 10-acre tract to erect a church and school. Completed in 1885, the small log church and school were named for Franciscan missionary St. Francis Solanus. Lightning in 1921 destroyed the original log church. It was rebuilt in 1924 using pipestone from a local quarry.