OUR LADY OF LOURDES (1916)

The Morgan County town of Wiggins started out in 1882 as the Burlington railroad depot of Corona. Around 1900, Corona was renamed in honor of Oliver P. Wiggins, a noted Indian scout who had a trading post there in the old days.

J.L. Juily, pastor at Fort Morgan, began celebrating Mass in the apartment over Jacob Yegge's Wiggins Meat Market in 1916. That same year, Father Juily acquired two lots and permission from Bishop Matz to build a church. He designed the church and oversaw its construction; with the pastor and his eighteen parish families doing much of the work themselves, the little frame chapel was built for about $1,000, half of which was donated by the Catholic Extension Society, and dedicated in November 1916.

Father Juily, whose four brothers back in France were fighting in World War I, named the new parish for Our Lady of Lourdes with the prayer that she would protect them. After Father Juily was transferred in 1918, various other Fort Morgan priests offered monthly Masses in the little mission church in Wiggins. In 1923, Our Lady of Lourdes became a mission of St. Mary's in Brush. After the Great Depression, the 1935 Memorial Day flood, and World War II took their toll, Our Lady of Lourdes dwindled to eight families and became inactive in 1953.

By 1959, when missionary priests resumed services in Wiggins, the church had fallen into such disrepair that Masses were held in the music building of the Wiggins Grade School. The parish began growing again, particularly with the influx of migrant laborers, inspiring the congregation to purchase the old Wiggins Community Church building and five adjoining lots for $8,500. Volunteers remodeled the interior and converted the basement to a parish hall. The old church was sold, and parishioner Bob Franzel remodeled it into his residence.

James L. Ahern, pastor of St. Mary's in Brush, resumed weekly trips to Our Lady of Lourdes. The revived parish also began offering a summer school, conducted by students from St. Thomas Seminary in Denver. Missionary Sisters of Our Lady of Victory and Dominican sisters also visited the parish during the summer to help provide religious education.

In 1970, Wiggins became a mission of Sacred Heart parish in Roggen, whose pastor also attended Keenesburg. A May 7, 1973, flood of Kiowa Creek inundated the church, reconfirming parish sentiment to move and build a new church. On August 4, 1974, Archbishop Casey dedicated the new, $100,000 home of Our Lady of Lourdes. Although the small town of Wiggins remained a mission of Sacred Heart in Roggen, the fifty families of Our Lady of Lourdes demonstrated, with their impressive new church, their staunch commitment to Catholicism.