Cross in the Woods Catholic Shrine of Indian River

The story of Cross in the Woods begins in early April 1946, when Bishop Francis Haas of the Diocese of Grand Rapids traveled to northern Michigan to survey the possibility of a new Catholic parish in the Indian River area. At the time there were only about twelve year-round Catholic families in Indian River, but the region drew large numbers of vacationing Catholics each summer, and parishioners from Indian River and Wolverine made long, difficult drives on unpaved roads to attend Mass at the mission church of St. Monica's in Afton. Retired businessman James J. (J.J.) Harrington, a longtime Burt Lake resident, helped locate land for the new parish; the Michigan State Parks Commission eventually granted undeveloped Burt Lake State Park property for the site in May 1948, at a price of $1.00 and a box of candy for the secretary. On June 23, 1946, Fr. Charles D. Brophy was named administrator of the new parish and its mission church of St. Monica's in Afton. The first Mass was celebrated three days later, on June 26, 1946, by Fr. A.J. LeRoux in the Indian River Town Hall, since no church building yet existed. Driving north to his new assignment, Fr. Brophy was struck by the beauty of the northern Michigan woods and thought of Blessed Kateri Tekakwitha, the 17th-century Mohawk convert who had made a practice of setting small wooden crosses in trees as woodland shrines. He hoped to name the new church for her, but Kateri had not yet been canonized. Architect Alden Dow of Midland — a student of Frank Lloyd Wright — was engaged to design the church, rectory, and an outdoor worship space. Dow's design used long, low lines to follow the natural bluff and blend the buildings into the woods, with five tall picture windows on the north wall. The plan echoed the proportions of a Native American 'long house.' The new church was completed by Memorial Day weekend 1949, and at its dedication Mass Fr. Brophy unveiled his dream of a Calvary Hill dominated by an enormous Cross — funded by contributions from around the world. After discussion with Dow, he committed to building not merely a roadside crucifix but the largest crucifix in the world. Bishop Babcock of Grand Rapids gave permission to begin Calvary Hill in July 1952. Workers built a 15-foot-high concrete and steel foundation, then buried it under thousands of cubic yards of soil, creating an earthen knoll 150 feet long, 75 feet wide, and 15 feet high. Custom-cut redwood timber was harvested in Oregon in 1953 by the Mauk Seattle Lumber Company — whose workers reportedly put extra effort into the job knowing the tree was destined for a Cross — and shipped by railroad flatcar. After seasoning through the winter of 1954, the timbers were sanded, polished, fitted with an iron base, and assembled. On August 5, 1954, McCready and Sons of Gaylord and contractor William A. Porter of East Jordan used cranes (one with a 70-foot boom) to lift and set the 55-foot Cross in place. Bishop Babcock told an estimated 3,000 onlookers that 'the Cross looks like an empty house without the figure of Christ on it,' and announced that renowned Michigan sculptor Marshall Fredericks had accepted the commission to create the corpus. Marshall Fredericks' 28-foot, seven-ton bronze figure of Christ took four years from sketch to plaster mold, and was cast at the Kristians-Kunst Metalstobori Foundry in Oslo, Norway — one of the largest castings ever shipped across the Atlantic. On August 9, 1959, workers raised the figure and bolted it to the Cross with thirteen 30-inch-long, 2-inch-diameter bolts. The formal dedication took place a week later. The completion of the Mackinac Bridge in 1957 and the I-75 Indian River Exit in 1962 dramatically increased pilgrim access, and millions of visitors from around the world have since come to the site. In 1961 the Diocese of Grand Rapids reassumed direct leadership of the parish and shrine after a period that had included pastoral care by other clergy. In 1983 the site was renamed from the Indian River Catholic Shrine to Cross in the Woods. In 1989 leadership was transferred to the Franciscan Friars (Order of Friars Minor, OFM), and the parish remained under Franciscan administration for many years — Fr. Donard Paulus, OFM, was the first Franciscan pastor and died in 2008. On September 15, 2006, the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops formally designated Cross in the Woods as a National Shrine. A 2021 dedication of the Blessed Fr. Michael McGivney Memorial further extended the grounds' devotional landscape. (Note: a separate, later Bishop-accountability.org report indicates that Fr. Bryan Medlin, appointed pastor effective September 17, 2021, stepped aside from duties during a civil investigation, with Rev. James Gardiner overseeing the parish in the interim.)