Manresa Grotto is a natural cave located on the Kalispel Indian Reservation north of Usk, WA, that served as a chapel for Jesuit missionaries (q̓ʷaylqs) and the Kalispel people. Measuring 75 feet wide by 50 feet long, its northwestern portal overlooks the Pend Oreille River Valley and mountains to the west.  The Grotto contains stone seats arranged like rows of pews and a stone altar near the front of the cave between its two openings.

The cave’s history as a chapel dates to the 1840s, when Jesuit missionary Father Pierre Jean DeSmet arrived in the Pend Oreille Valley en route to Fort Colville to obtain supplies for the newly completed St. Mary’s Mission in the Bitterroot Valley of western Montana.

During his visit, he baptized nearly 200 Indians, many of whom were Kalispel.  He returned to the valley the following year and decided to build a mission. The Jesuits established the first Kalispel mission, St. Michael’s, near Albeni Falls (sxʷeʔwí) in 1844, but spring floods the following year prompted them to relocate the mission.

They selected a second location in a camas prairie a few miles north of the Kalispel’s winter village (sč̓iʔé) where they established the St. Ignatius Mission.  After a few years at this location, it was moved to its present day location in St. Ignatius, Montana.

Father DeSmet named these caves Manresa Grotto in honor of St. Ignatius of Loyola, in reference to a famous cave in Manresa, Spain, where St. Ignatius is said to have prayed. DeSmet proclaimed, “May the Indians gather in crowds to this new Manresa, and after the example of their patron, St. Ignatius, be penetrated with a feeling sense of heavenly things, and inflamed with the love of God!”

To this day, Manresa Grotto (nłx̣ʷłox̣ʷ) still serves as a place of spiritual retreat for the Kalispel people and visitors alike.

Credits and Sources:

Bamonte, Tony, and Susan Schaeffer Bamonte. History of Pend Oreille County. Spokane, Wash.: Tornado Publications, 1996.

Fandrich, Blain, Lynn M. Peterson, and Sherri Deaver. A Kalispel Indian Cultural History. Billings, Mont.: Ethnoscience, Inc.

Kirk, Ruth, and Carmela Alexander. Exploring Washington’s Past: A Road Guide to History. Seattle: University of Washington Press, 1995.

Photographs courtesy of Historical Research Associates, The Allan Smith Collection, Lewis Clark State College Library Archives, and the Pend Oreille County Museum.

Prepared by Historical Research Associates, with assistance from the Kalispel Tribe. Audio narration by J. R. Buff of the Kalispel Tribe’s Cultural Program.