St. Boniface Catholic Church

Located almost in the middle of nowhere sits the old St. Boniface Catholic Church.


The building is tucked deep into some trees about twenty miles south of Conway, but you do get to pass through the awesomely named Toad Suck park on the way there.


A few years ago I worked in Conway and made a few trips out exploring this area. The church is a really great old building, and I always wondered how such a neat old church could survive out in the middle of pastures and fields. Before writing this I did a google search for the church and found this site that explains that it was once the seat of a small town of German immigrants who came there because of the new rail line. The town was called New Dixie, and was settled by Catholic families. The original church was built in 1901, but was destroyed by a fire during a service. This is the most interesting part of the info about the church: "By canon law, once a mass has started, it cannot be ended prematurely, though this was not to say that the entire congregation had to stay in the church. However, it did make it difficult to save either the church or its artifacts. The only object saved was the high alter that had been imported from Germany. The church itself was a total loss."

The current church building was built on the spot of the former church, but the town of New Dixie would begin to disappear so now the only lasting sign of the town is this old church. If you're interested, for a link to that site click HERE.

And a few more shots of the church:


And the church with the old cemetery in the foreground: