Cayuga Mission Church
Cayuga Mission Church sits on a quiet road nine miles northeast of Grove and is the only building left from the former Cayuga Springs village. It was built in the 1890s by Mathias Splitlog, a Wyandotte chief who funded the entire construction with his own money. He built it for his wife Eliza, a devout Catholic. The first service ever held in the church was her funeral. Both Mathias and Eliza are buried in the cemetery alongside the building. The church is built from limestone with an arched masonry doorway, stained glass windows, and a bronze bell that was cast in Belgium. The interior has hand-crafted wood and stonework. The original stained glass was destroyed by vandals between the 1930s and 1950s, and the church was badly damaged by thieves who set off explosions inside looking for a fortune rumoured to be hidden in the building. It was eventually restored by a private owner who also recovered the original bell and altar from another church in Nowata where they had been taken decades earlier. The church now holds non-denominational services every Sunday. (Grove, Oklahoma, USA)
