Guest, Sign inJoin

Post to St. Xavier

We’ll email a one-tap link to publish your post. No password, and nothing is public until you click it.
Already a member? Sign in
St. Xavier, Montana (2014)Photo: Andrew Filer from Seattle (ex-Minneapolis) · CC BY-SA 2.0
–Not graded
History · St. Xavier

St. Xavier’s post office opened in 1891, and 25% of its homes were built before 1940

Its Register listing is the St. Xavier Mission Church and Rectory.

1891first post office
1on the National Register
25%homes built before 1940
Add an old photoShare a memory
Quick answers

How St. Xavier began, and where its name came from

When was St. Xavier founded?

1891

The St. Xavier post office opened in 1891, the earliest record of the town by name.

2020 census: 78135 years

How did St. Xavier get its name?

St. Xavier was named for Saint Francis Xavier, cofounder of the Jesuits.

Founding year: the first St. Xavier post office (Blevins & Helbock, CC0). Name: Wikipedia, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0.

What stands out about St. Xavier’s past

Read from the archive, the National Register and the record. The page puts what stands out first.

A history waiting to be writtenNo old photos of St. Xavier are in the public archives yet. The rest are in attics and albums.
★ What stands out · Help out

Start St. Xavier’s collection

The first neighbors to add old photos shape how St. Xavier’s history is told.

Decades since 1900 with photos
00s10s20s30s40s50s60s70s80s90s
0 of 10 decades. The empty ones are waiting for someone’s album.
Share a family photoSign in to add one+10
The story so far

St. Xavier, in brief

Wikipedia doesn’t have a history of St. Xavier yet. The photos, dates and memories neighbors add here are how it gets written.

St. Xavier or Saint Xavior is a census-designated place (CDP) in Big Horn County, Montana, United States. It is located on the Crow Indian Reservation along the Bighorn River. The population was 78 at the 2020 census. It was 83 in 2010. In 1887 Jesuit priests Urban Grassi and Peter Paul Prando built their permanent mission church for the Crow people. It was named for Saint Francis Xavier, cofounder of the Jesuits. The church is still in use. A mission school was also formed at the time, now called Pretty Eagle School and still associated with the Catholic church. The town's economy is helped by fields irrigated by the Bighorn River. The nearby Bighorn Lake brings people for boating, fishing…

Its first post office opened in 1891. Between the 2010 and 2020 censuses its population fell from 83 to 78 (-6%).

Intro from Wikipedia. Population: U.S. Census Bureau.

By decade

St. Xavier, decade by decade

Today2 recent
St. Xavier, Montana (2014)2014St. Xavier, Montana (2014)MTMap-doton-StXavier2005MTMap-doton-StXavier
On the National Register

1 historic place in St. Xavier

The country’s official list of buildings and places worth saving.

place listed
1
National Historic Landmarks
0
none yet
historic buildings protected
2
each building in a district counts
first listed
1990
St. Xavier Mission Church and Rectory
St. Xavier Mission Church and Rectory
Buildings

Architectural styles listings

Gothic Revival1
Vernacular gable-front-and-wing1
St. Xavier Mission Church and RectoryGothic Revival

National Park Service, National Register of Historic Places. Photos from Wikimedia Commons, credited on each place’s page.

Famous people

Famous people close to St. Xavier

Nobody well known was born in St. Xavier itself, so here are the best known from just nearby.

See all →
K
Kendall CrossOlympic wrestler · b. 1968
White Man Runs HimCrow scout · b. 1858
Kroy BiermannAmerican football player · b. 1985
Thomas YellowtailChief of the Crow tribe · b. 1903
Tim FoxAmerican lawyer and politician · b. 1957
B
Bill YellowtailAmerican politician · b. 1948
Places that used to be

Old corners, places now gone and burying grounds

Old hamlets and crossroads still carry their names on the map.

Hamlets and corners on the map
Saint Xavier
Gone or out of use
Saint Xavier Public Schoolschool
1cemetery inside St. Xavier
Saint Xavier Catholic Mission

US Post Offices dataset (Blevins & Helbock, CC0). Places and cemeteries from the USGS Geographic Names Information System (2021).

Questions about St. Xavier’s history

What year was St. Xavier founded?

The St. Xavier post office opened in 1891, the earliest record of the town by name (U.S. post office records).

What is on the National Register in St. Xavier?

One place: the St. Xavier Mission Church and Rectory (listed 1990).

Memory lane

What the archives can’t tell you, neighbors can.

Town Square →
Start a conversation
Sources

Where this page comes from

Founding dates: Wikidata, Wikipedia, the U.S. post office records of Blevins & Helbock (CC0) and the Census. Homes by year built: Census ACS 2020–24. National Register of Historic Places: National Park Service (list of May 22, 2026). Old photos, postcards and papers: Wikimedia Commons, the Library of Congress and other public archives, credited on each item’s page. Maps: U.S. Geological Survey historical topographic maps (via Esri) and Sanborn fire-insurance maps (Library of Congress). History text and census tables: Wikipedia (CC BY-SA 4.0). Places that used to be: USGS Geographic Names Information System (2021). How TownRatings grades history →

From Wikimedia Commons (2), the National Register of Historic Places (1), the US Post Offices dataset (Blevins & Helbock) and the USGS Geographic Names Information System. Archive images are copied here with their credits and licenses, shown on each photo’s page. Refreshed monthly.