Brother Henry Wissing, S.J., architect and construction supervisor, completed a 40’ x 95’ church on the site in 1885. Bishop Martin Marty dedicated this original wood frame church on February 16, 1890. (more…)

In 1892 Fr. Florentine Digmann, SJ, answered a request from the Two Kettles band for baptism. Thus began ministry in the White River area to the Lakota people living there. In 1898 Mother Katharine Drexel donated the funds needed to build St. Ignatius Church, which moved two times in its history from the cemetery hill west of town to the river bottom in 1921, and finally in 1961 to its present location in town just west of Highway 83. In 1998, the church, the oldest in Melette County, was renovated for its 100th birthday.

Originally located west of Wood at St. Mary’s Garden cemetery, Our Lady of Good Counsel Church was moved to the town in 1961.

St. Patrick’s Church was dedicated on November 26, 1922. In 1969, the church was moved into the community of Spring Creek next to the Little White River. At the same time a smaller building was placed next to the church to serve as a hall and catechetical center.

Arson claimed the historic 98 year old St. Peter Church in August of 1997, two years short of its 100th year. In 1935 the church had been moved to Okreek from a location next to the Catholic cemetery about two and a half miles to the northeast. Parishioners and members of other denominations volunteered their skills and labor to complete the new church in time for its dedication by Bishop Blase Cupich on May 15, 1999.