The little stone shrine the Irish Hills built by hand

The fieldstone walls of St. Joseph’s were built by people who picked the stones out of their own fields. Irish immigrants settled this stretch of the Irish Hills in the 1850s — the very families the region is named for — and the land for a church was deeded to the Detroit bishop in 1851. The newcomers began laying up the church in 1854, hauling glacial rocks off the farms around them. A traveling priest said the first Mass in the finished building in 1863, and some of that original stone still stands inside the larger church there today, just off US-12 near Brooklyn.

The place became a destination almost by accident. By the 1920s the Irish Hills lakes were drawing summer crowds, and many of them stopped to pray. In 1928 the parish enlarged the church into a cross shape, capped it with a red tile roof, and tucked in a small indoor shrine modeled on the famous grotto at Lourdes in France.

Then came the part people drive out to see. Starting in 1932, seminarians built an outdoor Stations of the Cross winding across the grounds — fourteen scenes, set with stones gathered from around the world. One service in 1930 drew more than 900 people, a remarkable turnout for a country church.

It still works that way. Through the warm months, pilgrims walk the open-air stations one by one, gravel underfoot, lake breeze coming off the water, and finish inside the cool stone church the Irish raised here with their hands.