The mission was listed in the National Register of Historic Places in 1983 for its significance as the only remaining building associated with the Big Jim Band of Absentee Shawnee Indians, the Quaker Missionaries, and a pre-World War I socialist movement.

The Absentee Shawnee were so named because in 1845 they had left the rest of the tribe in Kansas and settled along the Canadian River in Indian Territory.

The village of Mardock in Cleveland County was just south of the mission for the Absentee Shawnees (Big Jim Band).

The Big Jim Band was relatively non-progressive and although they were receptive to the farming and community activities, they resisted the missionizing efforts.

However, the mission persisted and in the early 1900s, began to minister to the growing white population in the nearby community of Mardock.

The Mission was also an unofficial center for the Jones Family, a group active in the socialist movement during World War I.

The Big Jim Mission building was described as a small, single story, weatherboard, frame, T-shaped structure.