[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.
In 2002, the governor of Kansas formally recognized Saint Mary's Academy and College for the excellence of its educational curriculum.
[6][7] 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.