After a temporary location away (started in 1872), Oblate missionary Father Constantine Scollen, on behalf of the Roman Catholic Church, founded the permanent location in 1875. In 1883, Oblate missionary Father Albert Lacombe, returning after a ten-year absence, obtained two quarter sections of land for a "Mission district" to ensure a strong French-speaking Catholic community. Father Scollen, who had lived in the area since 1862 and who had witnessed Treaty Six with the Cree nations and Treaty Seven with the Blackfoot Confederacy, left for Edmonton and then the United States.