Holy Hill Basilica and National Shrine of Mary, Help of Christians is a Roman Catholic shrine in the north central United States, dedicated to the Blessed Virgin Mary. The centerpiece of the shrine is a minor basilica. It is located in the town of Erin, near Hubertus, Wisconsin, in the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Milwaukee. The shrine has approximately 300,000 visitors per year. Location The shrine is located atop a high kame in of woods. Visitors can climb a 178-step observation tower to view the Milwaukee skyline, about southeast. At approximately above sea level, it is one of the highest points in southeastern Wisconsin. Near Wisconsin's Ice Age Trail, it is about east of Erin Hills, a championship golf course which hosted the U.S. Open in 2017. History Tradition says that the hill was first discovered by Europeans in 1673 by Father Jacques Marquette with Louis Jolliet. However, modern historians view this tradition as untrue, though Jesuits were likely the first Catholic priests to set foot on the hill. The U.S. government owned the land until 1855, and the hill was known as "Government Hill" because surveying work was done there. Forty acres were purchased by Fr. Paulhuber of Salzburg, Austria. The first white resident of the hill was a hermit named François Soubrio. Around 1862, an area farmer found him living on the hill. Soubrio had heard about the hill when he was working as an assistant to a retired professor in Quebec, Canada. He had found an old French diary and map dated 1676 showing a cone-shaped mountain in Wisconsin. The diary described how the author placed a stone altar, raised a cross, and dedicated the hill to Jesus's mother Mary. The diary account corresponds with Jesuit missionary work in the area between 1673 and 1679. The name "Holy Hill" was first given to the place by Irish settlers in the area. Father George Strickner dedicated a log chapel as the first Shrine of Mary, Help of Christians on May 24, 1863. A set of wooden crosses were placed for the Stations of the Cross in 1875. In the winter of 1879, Fr. Raess sent a proposal to Archbishop John Henni to construct a new shrine to Mary. Construction began that spring. Pilgrims began flocking to the shrine, and it was decided that a religious order should administer the shrine. A group of Discalced Carmelites came from Bavaria