History of St. Jude Parish, Garden Valley, Idaho

A Brief History of St. Jude Parish
Garden Valley, Idaho

Garden Valley, located in the West Central Mountains of Idaho, is about 50 miles north of Boise, the state capital. Originally known as the Upper Payette Valley, Garden Valley received its present name when it acquired a post office in 1875. Natural geothermal hot water had drawn several Chinese growers to the area during the gold rush of the late 1870s in Central Idaho. The miners needed food and Garden Valley answered that need. The warm water allowed crop production all year, providing the gold miners in nearby Placerville, Centerville and the Boise Basin with fresh vegetables and fruit, grain, corn, beef and pork. It was truly a "Garden Valley".

Pep Hall, adjacent to church

For years, in order to meet their spiritual needs, Catholics of the Garden Valley area had to travel by horseback, wagon or stage coach to Idaho City or Boise. The people wanted their own local meeting place for Mass and the sacraments, so in 1894 a meeting was held to try and develop solutions to this problem. The result was a donation of land from the Mills family and many volunteers to help build the church. As news traveled slowly at that time, Bishop Glorieux was unaware of the project until some Garden Valley Catholics told him about the church and asked him to bless it and offer Mass there.

Between 1894 and 1934, Mass was offered in the church, but in the winter of 1934 the church burned down. St. Jude Church was rebuilt in 1934. Extensive repairs were completed in 1980 and over the past 18 years a parish hall and a well have been added in addition to landscape enhancement. --- from a 1995 St. Jude bulletin, author unknown

There are brief references to the parish in the History of the Diocese of Boise, 1863 - 1953, but nothing much more than "Fr. So-and-so visited Placerville, Garden Valley, Horseshoe Bend and Jerusalem." Two letters have been located in the Diocese file relating to St. Jude's, one from 1975 and the other from 1988.

Rev. Thomas A. Gaudian, administrator of the parish in 1975 wrote:

"This venerable Extension sytle (sic) mission church once served a small and faithful group of locals. Then they all moved. The church was locked up and not used for almost twenty years. Then under Fr. Wemhoff the building was reopened and repaired. Under Fr. Riffle and with the help of Mr. Bill White further restoration work was done and Mass was held on a regular basis through the summer -- Memorial Day - Labor Day. When Fr. Gaudian began serving this church the local folks asked to have Mass during the fall, winter, and spring. Fr. Gaudian agreed on an experimental basis. 20 folks or more at Mass every Sunday. In the summer this swells to almost 100 or more."

13 years later, in 1988, a letter to the Diocese (author unknown) reported:

"St. Jude's Parish is small in numbers of year round members, approximately 10 families. However, attendance at Sunday Mass is amazing because we have so many visitors. Although we will only have 15 to 25 people at Mass for the four winter months, the balance of the year will see 40 to 60 for another 3 months, and crowds of 70 to over 100 for the remaining 5 months."

Today, St. Jude Parish has over 60 families registered as members. Summer Masses still pack the small church as our parish family swells with vacationers and weekend residents. While we do not have a resident priest, we feel very fortunate to have Fr. Marcellus Fernandez drive up from his parish in Emmett, ID each Sunday to say Mass. Thank you, Fr. Marcellus!