In 1906, a cyclone leveled a big stretch of forest. Camps along the Wolf River enabled many to come in and cut timber. Tents and tar-papered shacks were erected. Many white folks came in, too, with sacks or bags holding everything they owned carried on their backs. Finally, a hotel was built to house 200 men. Bishop Joseph Fox asked the Franciscans at Keshena to come and take care of these people. The Franciscans stayed until 1975, when diocesan priests replaced them. Fr. Englehard Troesken was appointed the first pastor. The first Mass was held on July 4, 1909 on a table in the dining room of the Government Hotel. Fifty Catholics attended. The Pittsburgh Altar Society donated a set of vestments, one Benediction veil, two albs and a chalice. The Kansas City Altar Society donated altar linens, cassocks, and surplices.
Work on a church began on Sept 16, 1909, and the first Mass was celebrated on Nov. 21. The government gave three acres for a cemetery in 1910. St. Pope Pius X donated 1,000 Austrian crowns to supply the main money for the 1909 church, which was razed in 1958 to make room for a new one. The parish had 101 families - 83 Native American and 18 white. This was a mission parish of the Green Bay Diocese until 1931.
A parish school was built in 1913 and staffed first by the Franciscan Sisters of the Holy Cross from Bay Settlement and then by the Franciscan Sisters of Christian Charity from Manitowoc. St. Anthony School became a tribal school in 1995 when the parish could no longer afford to run it and the tribe became a Tribal School.
The present church was built with stone and wood from the region. There are 18 different kinds of wood in the structure - all from reservation lands and cut at the Menominee Tribe's sawmill. Woods include linden, aspen, cedar, ash, oak and hemlock. To save money, parish members built much of the 1959 church, including the pews. When the men left their shifts at the lumber mill, they crossed the river to donate their labor to build the new church. Parish members even raised the 35-foot copper steeple by hand. Bishop Stanislaus Bona blessed the church on April 24, 1959. A shrine to the Pope Pius X is located inside the present church. Some of the first church's cross is preserved there, as well. There is also a shrine to St. Kateri Tekakwitha, the first Native American saint.
The first two-story school was completed in the fall of 1913 when it opened on Sept. 22 with 70 students. By the end of the year, there were 96 students, 65 of whom were Menominee. They were taught by three sisters from the Bay Settlement Franciscans until 1936 when they were replaced by sisters from Manitowoc. On the first day of school, Mr. Nicholson, the Indian Agent from Washington, DC., arrested all Native American parents for sending their children to a parochial school. This was done on order of the sawmill manager. Fr. Troesken petitioned the Indian Commissioner to let parents send their children to the church school. Permission was granted. In 1932, a gym was built.
Work on a new school, convent, church hall and rectory began in 1954. Bishop Bona dedicated the buildings on Sept. 5, 1955. Bells came in 1964 from a church in Illinois. They were named Kateri, Mary and John.
The rectory burned down on February 20, 2015. It not only housed the priest and parish offices, but also served as the food pantry. The pantry and parish offices were rebuilt as part of the Neopit Community Center with the help of parishioners and sister parishes, St. Thomas More included. There are presently two diocesan parish priests (both Philippino) for the four joined parishes; they reside at St. Michael’s Parish in Keshena and Mary’s Parish in Leopolis.
St. Anthony Parish is the poorest in the Green Bay Diocese because the Menominee Reservation/County (same geographic boundaries) has high unemployment and poverty rates. Even though the parish lacks monetary resources, faithful parishioners continue to be invested in their church and are always willing to help in any way. With insurance money from the fire that destroyed the rectory, the flooring in the church and sanctuary was replaced, the church’s bathroom was updated, the outside doors were replaced, statues were cleaned and a reconciliation room was created in 2018. Office space for the priest was created in the Neopit Community Center.