Father John F. Malo was born near Montreal, Canada in 1830. Ordained as a priest at the age of 28, Father Malo moved to the Turtle Mountains of Dakota Territory in 1881 with a group of settlers from Quebec to found a mission. Together with the local Me_tis, they constructed a twenty by forty foot log church and christened it St. Claude on this day, May 3, 1882.

Shortly after its construction, the St Paul, Minneapolis and Manitoba Railroad reached the area, but the rail line missed St. Claude by two miles. So in 1884, the mission relocated two miles south and built a new log church named St. John the Baptist. The new site grew into the town of St. John in Rolette County. In 1927, the St Claude mission site was deeded to the State Historical Society of North Dakota.

Written by Christina Sunwall

Sources:
Compendium of History and Biography of North Dakota (Chicago: George A. Ogle and Co: 1900)
Snortland, J. Signe, ed., A Traveler's Companion to North Dakota State Historic Sites, 2nd Edition (Bismarck, ND: State Historical Society of North Dakota; 2002)

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