St. Marys

History

St. Marys was laid out as a community in 1866. It was named after the St. Mary's Mission. The oldest surviving mission building is the Pottawatomie Indian Pay Station which was built in 1855 and was used by government agents to pay an annuity to the Pottawatomie Indians who relocated to the area from the Great Lakes region. It was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1972. Starting in the 1980s, supporters of the Society of Saint Pius X began moving to St. Marys, attracted by the presence of the SSPX in the community as well as the relative isolation of the city from the modern world. Since then the number of residents in St. Marys affiliated with the SSPX has grown considerably, to the point where in 2020 that they formed the majority of the city's population. The growth of the SSPX has been a source of tension with some older residents who are not members of the movement and who do not share the Society's socially conservative values.

Geography

According to the United States Census Bureau, the city has a total area of , all land. The city is located approximately 20 miles west of Topeka on U.S. Route 24.

Race & ethnicity

Most-observed species

• Northern Cardinal

  Cardinalis cardinalis (Linnaeus, 1758) · Aves
  872
• American Crow

  Corvus brachyrhynchos C.L.Brehm, 1822 · Aves
  719
• Red-bellied Woodpecker

  Melanerpes carolinus (Linnaeus, 1758) · Aves
  708
• Blue Jay

  Cyanocitta cristata (Linnaeus, 1758) · Aves
  650
• Black-capped Chickadee

  Poecile atricapillus (Linnaeus, 1766) · Aves
  610
• Red-tailed Hawk

  Buteo jamaicensis (Gmelin, 1788) · Aves
  597
• Mourning Dove

  Zenaida macroura (Linnaeus, 1758) · Aves
  583
• American Robin

  Turdus migratorius Linnaeus, 1766 · Aves
  537