Geocache site brought to you by Turtle Mountain Souris Plains Heritage Association. Lat: N 49°30.285′ Long: W 100°42.155′. Information from TMSPHA, Grasslands Municipality, and Virtual Manitoba websites.
The St. Jean Catholic Church, of frame construction, features a tall spire and cross with a statue in the front gable of St. Louis de Gonzague, a gift from Mr. and Mrs. Desire Vinck Sr. The church was once associated with a convent and school run by the Sisters of Our Lady of the Missions.
In May 1888, a young priest from France, Father Jean Gaire, made his way across the Atlantic Ocean to arrive in Montreal. From there he traveled by rail across Canada to Winnipeg and then to Oak Lake; and then set off by horse and buggy to what he named Grande Clairière, on the northern edge of the Lauder Sandhills.
Father Gaire applied for a homestead near to the only other house that was in the area: that of the family of Thomas Breland. The Métis family welcomed the enthusiastic young priest. Using the simple table in the Breland’s home as an altar, Gaire held his first Mass on July 22, 1888. In attendance were the three Métis families who lived nearby which amounted to 16 people.
Accompanied by some of his parishioners, Gaire began an addition to his house that would serve as a chapel. The first Mass was celebrated on Nov. 25th and was attended by eight Métis families, two French-Canadian families and two families from France.
In the spring of that year new settlers began arriving from France and by July there were 43 homes and almost 150 people in Grande Clairière. French and Belgians were among the new immigrants.
In 1890 Father Gaire began building the community’s first proper church. It began by measuring 10 by 5 metres. Very soon it was realised that the growing congregation would need much more space and it was enlarged to a magnificent 10 by 26 metres, 9 metres high with seating for 300 people. New colonists were always arriving. A wave of settlers in 1892 swelled Grande Clairière’s numbers to 400 people; eventually this increased to 600.
The church that stands in Grande Clairière today was built in 1907 after a cyclone ripped the former one down. The body of this church remains today, a 12 by 18 metre structure with a vaulted ceiling 8 metres high. In 1923 a bell tower, front entrance and sacristy completed the St. Jean Catholic Church. Services are still held in this building today.
In 1903, Archbishop Langevin blessed the bell in the church tower. The bell weighed 227 kg. and was purchased by the parishioners and blessed with the name of “Jeanne” in honour of Father Jean Gaire.
School up until this time had been taught by Father Gaire himself and held in whatever space was available, usually in the church or rectory. A new rectory was built and the old one converted into a school house. In 1898 a small group of sisters from The Order of Our Lady of the Missions came to Grande Clairière. They taught boarding school there from 1898 until December of 1923 when their convent burned down. After they left, a public school was established. Grande Clairière was served for almost twenty years by another order, the Sisters of Notre Dame de la Croix. They conducted public school lessons in the two-room public school house and their home, from 1936 to 1955. Public school continued to be held in Grande Clairière until 1966.
By 1905, the population of Grande Clairière had greatly diminished to only 60 families due to land elsewhere that had homesteads available as well as richer soil. Today, there are only a few houses still occupied, but the Church of St. Jean still serves its congregation.
