Pierre J. DeSmet

The sign's date cannot stand as written: July 10, 1840, fell on a Friday. Pierre-Jean De Smet, a Belgian Jesuit, had said the first Mass in present Wyoming at the Green River rendezvous on Sunday, July 5, and by the Wyoming State Historical Society's account reached Pierre's Hole on the 12th, a Sunday. Some 1,600 Salish and Pend d'Oreille people, the sign's Flathead and Pend Oreille, waited there for the priest their delegations had gone to St. Louis to ask for. He travelled north with their camp and said Mass again near Henrys Lake on July 23.

What the plaque says

Pierre J. DeSmet Roman Catholic missionary services began in Idaho on Sunday, July 10, 1840, in Teton Valley, followed by a mass held near here at Henry's Lake, July 23. Pierre J. DeSmet, a Belgian Jesuit leader, accompanied a Pend Oreille - Flathead band on their way northwest to their homeland. Climbing a mountain here, along streams "descending from dizzy heights, leaping from rock to rock with a deafening noise," he invoked divine thanks for his successful tour into Idaho and Montana. 452 Text prepared by the Idaho Historical Society Marker made & installed by Idaho Transportation Department

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• Harriman State Park — 20 mi
  The Harrimans would give Idaho their ranch only when Idaho had a parks department fit to run it. The state built one.

More markers nearby

• Sawtell's Ranch — 5.5 mi
• Harriman Wildlife Refuge — 18 mi
• Harriman State Park — 22 mi
• Caldera Lookout — 24 mi