Our History

Ten miles northeast of the Mount of the Holy Cross lies Minturn, a lumber town founded on the Denver & Rio Grande line in 1889. Several Catholics settled in the community named either for roadmaster Thomas Minturn or railroad director Robert G. Minturn.

James P. Carrigan, who was appointed pastor of St. Stephen’s in Glenwood Springs in 1910, began making monthly visits to celebrate Mass in Thomas Minturn’s section house. With his encouragement, local Catholics formed St. Patrick on September 13, 1913.

Thanks to a $500 gift from the Catholic Extension Society and funds raised by parish suppers and plays, a chapel was constructed in the fall of 1925. Howard G. Bayers built the one-story, 24-by-36-foot structure for $1,270.

Monthly Masses were offered by the pastor of Glenwood Springs, and, in 1936, Benedictine sisters from Canon City launched a three-week summer vacation school at St. Patrick. The sisters stayed with the families of various parishioners, including those of J.P. Doyle, J.A. Mack, William McBreen, and Charles A. Robbie.

The St. Patrick chapel expanded in 1950 with an $875 donation from the Catholic Extension Society, adding a basement, a choir loft, a confessional, and a new ceiling. On July 10, 1952, St. Patrick officially became a parish.

In September 1968, ground was broken on an interfaith chapel in Vail, and its dedication took place in November 1969. Father Thomas Stone, the pastor of St. Patrick at the time, and the Reverend Don Simonton of the Holy Cross Lutheran Church officiated, as they were the only two resident clergy at the time.

As the parish continued to grow, a larger church was built to accommodate the growing congregation. On August 11, 1990, the St. Patrick parish center, now St. Patrick Church, was dedicated on Pine Street, with Father Edward Poehlmann serving as pastor. St. Patrick Church is where weekend masses in Minturn are held today.

Father Hugh Guentner served as pastor of St. Patrick in 2002, when the building that would become the parish’s community building was purchased. The Spirit Center is now used for religious education classes as well as church community gatherings.

St. Patrick Catholic Parish is home to 450 visiting parishioners and 250 local parishioners and continues to grow year after year.