History

The early years of the twentieth century brought the first wave of young Greek men and women to the American West seeking a better life. Many found their way to the coal mines of Price and Helper, Utah, drawn by steady work that suited men from the mountainous regions of Greece. Greeks who thrived in those mining communities gradually expanded into northwestern Colorado, working in mines, ranching, and establishing small businesses across the high desert country around Craig.

These early immigrants worked hard, saved their money, and in time established homesteads in the Craig area. Many returned to Greece to visit family, find brides, and bring their wives back to Colorado, where they expanded their families and became respected members of the Craig community. The end of World War II brought a second wave of immigration from war-torn Greece, and the Greek community of Craig found itself growing again. For years the faithful maintained their Orthodox traditions without a local church, summoning clergy from Salt Lake City or Denver to fulfill the sacramental needs of the community for baptisms, weddings, and funerals.

In the early 1950s a group of Greek-American families decided the time had come for an Orthodox church in Craig. They pooled their savings and drew support from the broader regional Greek community in Meeker, Grand Junction, Price, Helper, and Salt Lake City, purchasing eight lots at the corner of 7th and Green Streets as the future site of their parish. A Salt Lake City businessman instrumental to the project provided discounted building materials, and Salt Lake City architect George Nicholettis was commissioned to design the facility and assist in its construction. Building began in the fall of 1957 but came to a sudden halt with the untimely death of Tony Peroulis, whose family subsequently donated the iconostasis to the church in his memory. Construction resumed in the spring of 1958 with the setting of the cornerstone, the church was completed later that year, and the first Divine Liturgy was celebrated by Father Diakandrou, bringing to fruition the decades-long dream of the Greek community of northwestern Colorado.

Saint John the Baptist Greek Orthodox Church on Green Street in Craig serves the Orthodox Christian faithful of northwestern Colorado as a parish of the Greek Orthodox Metropolis of Denver within the Greek Orthodox Archdiocese of America, the enduring spiritual home of the Greek immigrants who built a new life in the high country of the American West.