St. John’s Parish in Pelican Lake

For some 100 years there have been Catholics worshipping in the Village of Pelican Lake.  The first Mass was celebrated in the village at the hotel owned by John E. Rice.  The hotel, a large wooden building still stands on the lakeshore south of the Pelican Lake Hotel and is a private home today.  In those early years a priest came from Antigo about once a month to preside at Mass, usually on a weekday.  The “parish” as it existed was in the Green Bay Diocese at the time.  In 1907 the first church was built in Pelican Lake adjacent to the site of the present church.  By this time a priest would travel from Three Lakes to administer the sacraments as the Parish had become a part of the Superior Diocese.  In the 1950’s the old church was showing its age and more room was needed with the influx of tourists and a growing number of year round residents.  The present church was completed in 1958.  Following the closing of St. Mary’s Church in Jennings, that was built by the Polish community there in 1904, and St. James Church in Monico, many people from these communities now travel to St. John’s in Pelican Lake.  The diversity of the members from the three communities has made for an active community of worshippers that are welcoming to the tourists who continue to arrive each summer.

(submitted to the Diocese for publication in the Diocesan History Book)