STORY AND PHOTO BY KAREN BOSSICK
It was the summer of 1880 when a Catholic priest arrived in the Wood River Valley and said a historic first Mass at the head of the Bullion Canyon in Hailey.
Three years later on June 17, 1883, another priest oversaw the construction of a church in Hailey and dedicated it under the patronage of St. Charles Borromeo, an Italian saint and Cardinal who was dedicated to church reform and the education of lay people and future priests.
The parish of St. Charles Borromeo Catholic Church will celebrate their 140th anniversary on Sunday, June 18, with a procession starting at high noon, an outdoor Mass of Celebration, live music, traditional Mexican dances, a picnic and pinatas and children’s games.
The procession will start at the north side of the Blaine County Courthouse with parishioners carrying a statue of St. Charles to the site of the current church. Catholic Bishop Peter Christensen of the Diocese of Boise will preside over the celebration. In addition, the church museum will be open so visitors may experience the church and see centuries-old artifacts, photographs and newspaper clippings describing the stories that have happened during the past 140 years.
Photographs include some of the original 1800s church, and artifacts include a small pump organ that was made in New York and came across the Plains on the back of a mule.
“The parish is proud of its long history and excited to celebrate this milestone,” said Father Ronald Wekerle, who was raised in Ketchum and graduated from Wood River High School in 1980. “It is time for celebration. Focusing on honoring the past, celebrating the present and envisioning the future are all reason to commemorate the past 140 years and look forward to the future.”
There were 700 residences in Bullion when Father Louis Verhaag came in 1880. He was followed in 1881 by Father Emanuel Nattini, a native of Genoa, Italy, a member of the Jesuit Order of San Francisco and a mover and shaker. Buoyed by the large population of miners in the Wood River Mining District, he encouraged the Catholic Church to obtain properties for future churches in Hailey, Ketchum, Bellevue and Shoshone.
He had little trouble financing the construction of a church in Hailey, given the booming mine industry in the area.
The church was dedicated in June 17, 1883. And Nattini turned his attention to building a church dedicated to St. Mary in Ketchum in 1884. He followed that up with St. Francis Xavier Catholic Church in Bellevue and St. Peter Church in Shoshone in 1885.
St. Charles Church served as the parish hub for the mission churches and also oversaw the spread of the Catholic faith to Pocatello, Montpelier, Rexburg and St. Anthony.
The original St. Charles Church was located where Atkinsons’ Market in Hailey is located today. A small frame building with a round rose window, it sat next to a large livery stable.
About 1906 it was moved to its present site at 315 1st Ave. N. on land that Belgian-born Alphonse Glorieux—the first bishop of the Diocese of Boise--purchased in April 26 for $270. At that time, the rose window was sold and placed in the Reinheimer Barn at the south entrance to Ketchum.
A new church building was built in 1913 and later expanded in 1985 while keeping its stained-glass windows and bell tower and ornate altar with a replica of the Last Supper.
“I think of it as a beautiful rose chapel in the mountains,” said Joan Davies, who has attended St. Charles since 1960. “It doesn’t look like a big cathedral, but it’s a beautiful parish. And the community has always been very accepting of one another and shown great hospitality.”
When Davies started attending Mass at the church 63 years ago, Basques with names like Inchausti comprised the biggest ethnic group. They had come to herd sheep and had stayed to become boarding house owners and even financial analysts.
There was one Hispanic family by the name of Beltran, who made their living working in the mines and contributed greatly to the community, said Davies.
Today the church is filled with Hispanic families—so many that the church has a 7 p.m. Spanish-speaking Mass on Saturday night, in addition to its 8:30 a.m. English Mass on Sunday. The Hispanic congregants celebrate the Feast of Our Lady of Guadalupe every Dec. 12, which includes the colorful folkloric dance of perfection with a jester trying to throw the dancers off key.
They also organize colorful Cinco de Mayo and other festivities around the church.
This year the parish prepared 55 youth for Confirmation and 82 children for their First Communion. Members also celebrated numerous baptisms and quince anos celebrations.
The religious education programs led by volunteer teachers fill the parish classrooms beyond capacity, and spirit-filled Masses are often filled to capacity. And the parish’s 350 families are considering yet another expansion to the church.
The parish hall served as the site of an annual Basque Dinner for decades. The Oinkari Basque Dancers would come from Boise and people would line up down the street and around the corner to enjoy a meal of lamb, Basque beans, Spanish rice and Basque sourdough bread, flan and homemade pies.
For many years the parish kitchen and dining room were also used by volunteers who provided two Souper Super meals a week to the community. Even this past year it was used for a community Thanksgiving dinner.
The Souper Suppers brought together volunteers from St. Charles and Our Lady of the Snows, as well as members from the LDS community, Wood River Jewish Community and other faith communities.
St. Charles is proud of the commitment of its members and delighted to contribute to the overall quality of life in the Wood River Valley, said Wekerle.
“It’s just amazing that it’s still going strong after all these years,” he said. “Talk about a vibrant community! St. Charles is all of that. It has tremendous volunteers who protect the legacy passed to them. The parish has done wonderful things from providing Souper Suppers to a safe haven for the Peruvian newcomers who needed shelter last winter. It’s a very thoughtful social-justice-oriented community, and now we have a beautiful group of Spanish people. We’re a blessed community and I hope people will come out and join us in our celebration.”