Many thanks to multiple parishioners who helped preserve and compile this history over the course of many years.

Immaculate Conception Church was an integral part of the unique history of the Catholic Church in the Dakota Territory that would ultimately grow into multiple dioceses across multiple Western states.

We can trace our history back to 1839 with the initial ministry of Father Pierre Jean De Smet into the area West of the Missouri River, including his work with the Lakota.  Father De Smet was responsible for the conversion of many and inspired Father Martin Marty to come to the United States. With him would follow a great tradition of ministry to the Lakota and establishment of schools and churches.  This led to explosive growth in the number of Catholics in The Dakota Territory.  Father Marty was named the Vicar Apostolic of the Dakota Territory.  Father Marty ultimately became the Bishop of Sioux Falls, which included Lead and Rapid City, after the Dakota Territory was split into North and South Dakota in 1889.  The number of Catholics continued to grow and a pattern of quickly outgrowing the sacred spaces that had recently been built emerged.
 

Pope Leo XIII split the Diocese of Sioux Falls into two in 1902, creating the Diocese of Lead, with Lead as the See and St. Patrick’s Church the cathedral.  Lead was chosen because the Homestake Mining Company was doing quite well, and the town had essentially become the business focal point of the Black Hills.

In parallel, Rapid City (formerly known as Hay Camp) also had rapid growth both in enterprise and in Catholics.  Bishop Marty had commissioned St. Mary’s Church to be built. The small, white wooden structure was completed in 1882. It did not take long for the Parish community to outgrow this church.  As a result, $25,000 was used to commission a new church next door.  This is the building that is now known as Immaculate Conception Church.

The cornerstone was laid in 1909 and was dedicated on July 9, 1911.  The church was built of indigenous sandstone by a master stone mason, Christof Birnbaum, who had moved to Rapid City from Germany in 1883 and was also a member of St. Mary’s Parish.

Over time, Rapid City, not Lead, evolved to be the center of the Black Hills. In 1930, Pope Pius XI moved the See to Rapid City and St. Mary’s became the Diocese of Rapid City’s Immaculate Conception Cathedral.  The Catholic population continued to grow, and even with the building of new churches within and around Rapid City, the Cathedral was simply too small. Additional Masses started to be held in the gym of the new Catholic high school. Ultimately in 1959, Bishop McCarty established a building fund for a new cathedral and in 1962 the move was made to that new cathedral.  On May 7, 1963, Our Lady of Perpetual Help Cathedral was dedicated. 

Priests from Bishop McCarty’s Redemptorist Order continued to maintain and hold Holy Mass at Immaculate Conception until his retirement in 1969.  For a significant period thereafter Immaculate Conception was unoccupied by a local parish, until the Priestly Fraternity of St. Peter (FSSP) began to make use of it in 1992.  In 2014, the Diocese of Rapid City formally organized a parish, and it was put under the care of the FSSP.  Ever since then, the Parish has been growing.  Immaculate Conception is the only Parish in the Diocese of Rapid City to exclusively celebrate the Traditional Latin Mass and Sacraments daily. 
 

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