Our Heritage
During the mid- and late-1800s, Columbia Gorge area families were served by priests traveling from Vancouver to The Dalles and Goldendale and as far east as Walla Walla. Mass was offered in homes or public buildings where available. Travel was by boat, wagon or horseback in the very early days. No set schedule of priestly arrival was made; News that a priest was coming would travel from community to community by word of mouth.The need for a church in Stevenson was recognized by Father William Carey, the Mission Pastor residing in Goldendale. In 1915, plans for a church building were made. The lot at the corner of Hot Springs and School Street was purchased from Alice Fleishhauer for $200. Early that year, Father Carey stood on the newly acquired land and contemplated naming the new church for Our Lady. A donor and the Catholic Extension Society in Chicago had stipulated such when a give of $500 was presented to the Biship at Nisqually for the erection of a church in Stevenson. It was a beautiful calm evening and as Father Carey gazed down at the Columbia River and up to a sky filled with stars, he chose the name Our Lady Star of the Sea.
The area was served by the following through the years:
| Oblates of Mary Immaculate | 1847-1855 |
| Jesuit priests from Ahtanaum Valley Mission | 1870s |
| Redemptorists | 1884- |
| Reverend Augustine Laure, S.J. (native of France) | 1890-1891 |
| Father Paul Gard | 1892-1901 |
| Father V. Courette, priest of the Holy Trinity | 1905-1907 |
| Franciscan Fathers | 1919-1923 |
| Father Thomas Edwards | 1923-1933 |
| Father William Lees | 1934-1939 |
| Father Patrick Lyons | 1939-1941 |
| Reverend John Joseph Hartnett | 1941-1945 |
| Reverend J.V. Hamilton | 1945-1949 |
| Reverend Martin Skehan | 1949-1951 |
In 1951, the diocese of Yakima was created and the Mission, Star of the Sea, being in Skamania County, remained in the Archdiocese of Seattle. It has been attached to St. Thomas Aquinas, Camas, Washington, ever since.
In 1965, a church hall and office was constructed, and in 1987, funding began to build a new church. Hazel Rahal donated propery on Rock Creek Drive, and the groundbreaking occurred in July 1994. Our current church was dedicated on October 29, 1995.