1896
Musee Girouxville Museum
The St. Augustine Roman Catholic Mission started in 1888 on the Shaftesbury Trail on the banks of the Peace River, located about 17 km south of the Town of Peace River. The Oblates of Mary Immaculate sent brothers and priests here to teach modern agricultural practices to the local native peoples. The Mission operated as a makeshift trading post, especially after the flour mill was erected in 1896, being the only flour mill in the area. In 1898, the Mission began a Residential School with the Sisters of Providence. This lasted until 1907 when the federal funding was transferred to St. Francis Xavier de Calais at Sturgeon Lake, AB. The Mission continued as a boarding school until 1950. At the time of the Mission’s closure, it had a convent, priests’ residence, church, flour and saw mills, bunk houses, laundry house, piggery and dairy barns, and extensive gardens. It was the ‘model mission’ for the Diocese of Grouard-McLennan.