[2] The school is the site of the first cathedral west of the Missouri River and east of the Rockies,[3] the 1851 "log cathedral" of Bishop John Baptist Miège, S.J., Apostolic Vicar of Kansas under Pope Pius IX known familiarly as "The Bishop East of the Rockies".
[4] When the Potawatomi were forcibly removed, the Jesuits turned it into a boarding school for boys, until it closed during the Great Depression.
[5] With the movement of seminaries to the city after Vatican II, the land was sold and the Jesuit divinity school returned to St. Louis in 1967.
[citation needed] In 2002, the governor of Kansas formally recognized Saint Mary's Academy and College for the excellence of its educational curriculum.
[10] In February 2008, St. Mary's Academy made news when a female referee was told that she could not officiate at the high school basketball game.