Bishop Baraga's First Church

Bishop Baraga's First Church is a Michigan historical marker in Manistique, Schoolcraft County, dedicated 1958.

8188 Arrowhead Rd, Manistique

Get directions ↗Start a road trip Historical trails

Near this site, on May 15, 1832, the Right Reverend Frederic Baraga, then a young Catholic missionary to the Indians, established and blessed his first church. A small building of logs and bark, it was built with the willing help of the Indians, and dedicated “to the honor of God under the name and patronage of His Virginal Mother Mary.” Until his death in 1868, Father Baraga labored selflessly in an area from Minnesota to Sault Ste. Marie, from Grand Rapids to Eagle Harbor. World famous as a missionary, he became Upper Michigan’s first Roman Catholic bishop in 1853.

TodayHistorical map

Slide toward Today to fade the historical sheet and see the modern map underneath.

David Rumsey Map Collection, Stanford Libraries

Historical maps covering this location

1828 · Michigan. (David Rumsey Map Collection, Stanford Libraries)
1852 · Wisconsin (Cowperthwait, 1852) (Barry Lawrence Ruderman Map Collection, Stanford Libraries)
1854 · A map of the surveyed part of Michigan / by John Farmer ; engraved by S. Stiles & Co. (University Library, Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam)
1874 · Colton's Michigan (1874) (Barry Lawrence Ruderman Map Collection, Stanford Libraries)
1925 · Rand McNally Official 1925 Auto Trails Map: Special Around Lake Michigan (The Chicago… (University of Chicago Library, Mapping Chicagoland · CC BY-NC 4.0, used by permission)

Michigan, 1828, covering the location of Bishop Baraga's First Church, with a pin at the marker's coordinates — Michigan, 1828, covering this location. David Rumsey Map Collection, Stanford Libraries. The pin is ours, placed from the marker's coordinates.

Example

For example, one family's tree showed the Articles of Confederation marker in Pennsylvania standing under a mile from where William Gabby lived in the 1760s.

What that marker records spans 1777 to 1789, overlapping William Gabby's years there.

From one family's 77-marker roster

Upload your family tree and TreeAlive finds the markers near where your own ancestors lived.

See your family's markers

Start with a tree file, a FamilySearch sign in, or a WikiTree ID.

Report a problem with this page

The marker isn't at this spotOur pin may be off. If you know where it stands, tell us.I couldn't find the markerWe record what the source recorded. We have not been to look.The sign reads differentlyThat would be an error, and we can pass it to the program.The historical map looks wrongThe period map behind the pin, not the marker itself.Something else

We may pass what you report to the state's marker program. Please don't include personal details.

Marker data: Michigan History Center
TreeAlive is an independent project. The State of Michigan and the Michigan History Center are not responsible for maintaining the information on this site.

More markers nearby

Thompson / Christmas Tree Ship6 mi
Lime Kilns8 mi
Indian Trail30 mi
Helmer House Inn / Helmer House Inn34 mi