A Brief History

Cook Covenant Church had its beginnings in the early 20th century in the village of Ashawa (Ojibiway for “on two sides of the river”). Our first congregation banded together and formally incorporated in 1907 as “The Missionary Church of Ashawa.” The town’s name was changed to Cook in 1908 in honor of Wirth Cook, a local logger and owner of the railroad that ran through town.

In 1914, the name of the church was changed to the “Swedish Evangelical Mission Church of Cook”, known locally as “Cook Covenant Church.”

For several pastors, this was their first church, including Rev. E.G. Hjerpe who later became President of the Swedish Evangelical Covenant Church, headquartered in Chicago. Another pastor went on to serve as Superintendent of the Covenant’s Northwest Conference.

In 1932 we changed our name again, this time to “Mission Covenant Church of Cook.”

The original church building, now the Lions’ Club storage building, was over on 1st Street. We built our current building in the late 1940s with adjoining parsonage.

Because of the transitory nature of this area with seasonal residents, tourists, and children who leave to seek employment, our church’s ministry had a wide evangelistic reach. Accordingly, we changed our name again in the 1970s to “Evangelical Covenant Church of Cook.”

In 1978 we built a new parsonage at 414-1st Ave. SE. The old parsonage, now known as the Annex, served as the pastor’s study, the church business office, and classrooms. In 1988 we built a basement addition to connect the church to the Annex and provide classroom space, our Fellowship Hall, and now the pastor’s office. We installed our elevator in 2005 to make our church handicapped accessible.

This is just our ‘physical history.’ Our spiritual history and impact is too big to be contained here. We have been impacted by thousands of people in our brief history, and there are stories of the thousands, (maybe millions) whom we have impacted by our presence and outreach.