Prairie of the Mass
About 2 miles south of Daniel on U.S. Highway 189

Rev. Pierre DeSmet (1802-73) was born in Belgium but came to America in 1821, joined the Jesuit society and began his work with the Indians. In his work he established sixteen treaties, crossed the ocean nineteen times and traveled 180 thousand miles on his errands of charity for the indians who knew him as the “Sincerest Friend.”

On July 5, 1840, in the presence of two thousand Indians, trappers and traders, he offered the first Holy Mass in what is now Wyoming on an altar of native stone decorated with wild flowers. In Father DeSmet’s own words, “It was a spectical truly moving to the heart of a missionary that this immense family, composed of so many different tribes should prostrate themselves in equal humility before the “Divine Host.” The monument at the site was erected in 1925 and a commemorative mass is offered there annually in July. On July 4, 1940, the one hundredth anniversary of the first Mass, a Pontifical High mass was offered by the Most Rev. Bishop McGovern assisted by more than thirty priests and attended by about two thousand people.