Abandoned Towns
The white clapboard St. Francis Xavier Church with green trim and a small belfry, under a blue sky

Chippewa City

An Ojibwe village on the Lake Superior shore that was bigger than Grand Marais in the early 1900s. Tax forfeiture and the highway took its land in the 1930s. A log church of 1895 is the one building left.

47°45′35″N 90°18′07″W · ≈670 ft

Photo: McGhiever, Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0

Closed for the season

The Cook County Historical Society owns the Chippewa City Church (St. Francis Xavier). On October 28, 2026 its page listed the church as closed for the season for fall and winter. In summer 2026 the society opened it on Saturdays and Sundays, noon to 4 p.m., from June 6, with free entry, per its news page. Call the museum at 218-387-2883 about other visits. The church is under repair.

Overview

The Ojibwe village east of Grand Marais

Inside the church: log walls, a white altar and rows of pews, August 2013
Inside the church: log walls, a white altar and rows of pews, August 2013 · Photo: Dandoug04, Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0

Chippewa City stood on the Lake Superior shore a mile and a half east of Grand Marais. It was an Ojibwe village, home to more than 100 families in the 1880s and 1890s by the Cook County Historical Society's count, and to as many as 200 Anishinaabe families around 1900 by another. In the early 1900s it had more people than Grand Marais. The artist George Morrison was born and raised here.

In 1895 the village built St. Francis Xavier Church. An Ojibwe carpenter, Frank Wischop, raised it of hand-hewn, dovetailed logs, and basket socials helped pay for it. Until 1916 it was the only Catholic church in Grand Marais.

The village lost its land in the 1930s. When Cook County tightened its tax policy in 1930, many lots fell delinquent, and a land speculator who paid the taxes had residents sign papers naming him owner. Highway 61 took more land by eminent domain. The final Mass was said at Christmas 1936, and by the late 1930s most families had gone. Only the church and a cemetery remain. Staci Drouillard, whose family lived here, tells the village's story in Walking the Old Road (2019).

Timeline

Village, church, forfeiture

  1. The Treaty of La Pointe opens the land to settlement. The Chippewa City land passes from Francis Rousain to D. George Morrison, both Ojibwe, then to Eber Bly and, by 1873, Henry Mayhew.
  2. Jesuits from Fort William, Ontario, start a mission for the Ojibwe families on this shore.
  3. Chippewa City, an Ojibwe village east of Grand Marais, is home to more than 100 families.
  4. Father Specht directs the building of St. Francis Xavier Church on land given by Antoine and Antoinette Fillison. Ojibwe carpenter Frank Wischop builds it of hand-hewn, dovetailed logs, paid for in part by birch-bark basket socials.
  5. A 225-pound bell and pews arrive in 1896; siding and a sacristy follow in 1903. Until 1916 it is the only Catholic church in Grand Marais.
  6. Chippewa City has more people than Grand Marais. One source counts as many as 200 Anishinaabe families.
  7. Cook County tightens its tax policy and many Chippewa City lots fall tax delinquent. A land speculator pays the taxes and gets some residents to sign papers, marked with an X, naming him owner. Building Highway 61 through the village takes more land by eminent domain.
  8. The final Mass is said in the church. By the late 1930s most families have left.
  9. The Lions and the Catholic Church begin restoring the church. Wikipedia dates the Cook County Historical Society's restoration to 1970-1974.
  10. The church goes on the National Register of Historic Places: 1985 by the historical society's count, July 31, 1986 by Wikipedia's.
  11. The Diocese of Duluth gives the church to the Cook County Historical Society.
  12. Grand Portage National Monument staff and volunteers dig test units in the churchyard.
  13. The society hires architects for a historic structure report and works on the foundation, log walls, chimney and windows.

What's left

What you'll see

The church from the side, with the sacristy and later additions behind, August 2012
The church from the side, with the sacristy and later additions behind, August 2012 · Photo: Peter Elvin, Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 3.0

The church stands by Highway 61 in a mowed clearing among spruce and other trees. It is a small white building with green trim, a belfry over the front gable, and additions behind: the sacristy of 1903 and a narthex added in 1963. Inside, the hand-hewn log walls show under a pale blue ceiling, with a white altar and rows of pews. The historical society is repairing the foundation and log walls, rebuilding the chimney and fixing the windows, and planted native species around it in 2025.

Northern Wilds reported in 2021 that the church and a nearby cemetery are all that remain. The 1960 Grand Marais sheet below prints Chippewa City on the shore south of the highway, with a cemetery marked up the slope to the north. The cemetery holds the village's dead; treat it with respect. Other buildings now stand along the highway, and a 1.85-acre beach parcel at the east edge of Grand Marais, an old MnDOT gravel pit, was proposed in 2021 for return to the Grand Portage Band.

  • St. Francis Xavier Church (1895), with its 1903 sacristy and 1963 narthex
  • A cemetery north of the highway
  • The Lake Superior shore the village stood on
USGS topographic map of Highway 61 and the Lake Superior shore at Chippewa City
USGS The National Map, topo. Minnesota Highway 61 runs along the shore, with Chippewa City printed just south of it.
Aerial view of the highway through woods along the Lake Superior shore
Aerial imagery, same area. The highway cuts through the woods above the shore, with clearings and houses beside it.

Historic maps

Chippewa City on USGS maps, 1960–1977

Crops from the USGS Historical Topographic Map Collection, centered on the townsite. Each sheet shows what surveyors mapped that year; compare them with today's topo and aerial on this page.

USGS topographic map around Chippewa City, 1960
Grand Marais sheet, 1960, 1:24,000 · U.S. Geological Survey, public domain · catalog record

Map & directions

Getting there

Chippewa City is on Highway 61 at the east edge of Grand Marais. From Duluth, Highway 61 follows the North Shore of Lake Superior the whole way.

USGS topographic map of Grand Marais and the shore east to Chippewa City, with the route drawn on it

Base map: USGS The National Map (public domain). Routes: OSRM on © OpenStreetMap contributors data (ODbL), computed October 2026. Times assume dry roads.

From downtown Grand Marais1.7 miabout 4 min
  1. From downtown Grand Marais, take West 1st Street and North Broadway a block to the highway.0.1 mi
  2. Turn right on East Highway 61 (MN 61) and follow it northeast. The church is on the right, by the lake side of the highway, about 1.1 miles along; the route ends half a mile farther on, at the mapped village point.1.6 mi
Google Maps directionsApple MapsOpenStreetMap

Directions go to St. Francis Xavier Church, where the drive ends, not to the townsite.

Road and safety notes

  • The church is right on Highway 61, the main North Shore road.
  • The historical society owns the church; the rest of the old village site is in other hands. Stay on the church grounds unless the society says otherwise.

Photos

Chippewa City in photos

Visitor reports

Been to Chippewa City?

Been there lately? Tell the next visitor what you found: whether you could get in, the state of the road and what's still standing. Photos are welcome. We read every report before it appears here.

Nearby

Other sites near Chippewa City

Straight-line distance from the townsite to other mapped sites in our Minnesota index.

Sources

Sources and credits

  1. Wikipedia, "Chippewa City, Minnesota", read October 28, 2026: the location 1.5 miles northeast of Grand Marais, the 1854 treaty and land chain, about 100 families in the 1890s, the land lost to Highway 61, the coordinates.
  2. Wikipedia, "Church of St. Francis Xavier (Grand Marais, Minnesota)", read October 28, 2026: the 1855 Jesuit mission, the 1895 building, closing in 1936, the 1970-1974 restoration, the July 31, 1986 National Register listing, the 1382 Highway 61 address.
  3. Cook County Historical Society, "Chippewa City Church (St. Francis Xavier Church)", read October 28, 2026: closed for the season, the volunteer docents, more than 100 families in the 1880s and 1890s, George Morrison, the restoration work and the 2025 planting, the museum phone.
  4. Cook County Historical Society, "The History of the Chippewa City Church", read October 28, 2026: Father Specht, the Fillison land, Frank Wischop, the basket socials, the 1896, 1903 and 1963 additions, the only Catholic church until 1916, the last Mass at Christmas 1936, restoration from 1958, the 1985 listing, the 1998 gift from the Diocese of Duluth.
  5. Cook County Historical Society home page, read October 28, 2026: the 1402 MN-61 address.
  6. Cook County Historical Society, "Latest News", read October 28, 2026: the church open Saturday and Sunday, noon to 4 p.m., from June 6 through summer 2026; free entry to all its sites.
  7. Shawn Perich, "State may return Superior beach to the Ojibwe," Northern Wilds, June 30, 2021: more people than Grand Marais in the early 1900s, the 1930 tax policy and the speculator, Highway 61 by eminent domain, most gone by the late 1930s, the church and cemetery as the remains, the beach parcel.
  8. "Book recalls historic Ojibwe settlement," The Timberjay, May 16, 2020: as many as 200 Anishinaabe families, Staci Drouillard's Walking the Old Road.
  9. The North Shore Journal, November 3, 2023: the historic structure report, the planned repairs, the 2017 archaeological survey.
  10. Elevation: USGS 3D Elevation Program point query. Routes: OSRM on OpenStreetMap data, October 2026.

Photo and map credits