Driving into the St. Mary's Indian Reserve, it's hard not to notice the beautiful heritage buildings laying in front of the breathtaking views of Fisher Peak and the Steeples. One of the most iconic images of the Ktunaxa's reserve is the St. Eugene Church, which is slowly being returned to its former splendor.

A lot has happened to the St. Eugene church since the Townsman last caught up with the St. Mary's Band in August. The much beloved church is now nearing completion of restoration work that kicked off in August. Michelle Shortridge, housing and capital projects manager for the St. Mary's Band Administration, said they are aiming to have the building open to the public for Christmas Eve mass.

"It's a huge part of the St. Mary's and Ktunaxa Nation history," Shortridge said.

The restoration work is being completed by W&S Developments out of Prince George, a company that specializes in historic building restorations. They began construction on the church in October, and the west side of the foundation is now complete. Now the work has switched to the front portion of the church.

Shortridge said the process has been painstakingly slow, because they were advised not to remove the kiln-fired stained glass windows that were constructed in Italy from the building before renovating the foundation. That has meant that the building has had to be slowly lifted with extreme care not to shift it in any way.

"So far, so good," Shortridge said. "We haven't had any issues."

The late Victorian building's original foundation was made out of rocks, which had began to crumble away beneath the church. Cracks in the foundation were discovered in 2003, and the building was closed to the public in 2004 for safety reasons. The statues inside the church were placed in storage off-site.

Since then, the St. Mary's Band have dearly missed the building, which was a huge part of the community. Shortridge said that many celebrations were held within the walls of the St. Eugene Church, from funerals, to weddings, holiday parties, spiritual ceremonies and more.

"Not having that space for the past seven years has really impacted the community," she said.

The St. Eugene Church Restoration Society was created in 1980 to preserve the historic building. When the church was deemed unsafe in 2004, the society began raising funds to fix the building up. Many local donors have helped get the project underway, but it wasn't until a $100,000 donation from Teck Coal, that the project really found its legs.

"We knew it was going to cost more than $100,000 to undertake this project," Shortridge said. "We were quite impressed with Teck Coal coming to the table."

The church, which was declared a heritage building in 1983, was commissioned by Father Nicolas Coccola, the head St. Eugene Mission. It was constructed in 1897 for $12,000. It was built in Italy, and every piece was shipped over and assembled here.

"If you can just imagine the process of getting (the church) over here," Shortridge said.

The targeted opening date is mid-December, but Shortridge said it will be a while before the building can be used the way it was before it closed. The band is aiming to have it ready for this year's Christmas Eve mass. There is already a wedding booked for the building in May.

After the foundation is repaired, Shortridge said that phase two of the renovations will start up next year. That project will see the exterior of the church returned to its former glory. The final phase will be to restore the historic art work and statues that were inside the church.

Shortridge believes that had the restoration not started when it did, the building may have been lost forever - which would have been a massive loss for the community.

"I think it all worked out perfectly in the end."