A crucifix from World War I is being returned to its home church in Doingt, France. 

The crucifix was rescued from the remains of the church, which was destroyed during the Battle of the Somme — a battle that took over 300,000 lives, according to SWNS. 

The northern France church was destroyed in 1916, and those who rescued the cross knew they needed to take it to a safe place. 

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The British eventually transported the cross to the All Saints Church of Tinwell, Rutland, England — a 297-mile trip. 

But now that the original church where the cross was found has been rebuilt, the cross will be returning home in June of this year.

The Doingt church was rebuilt in 1925 — something the Tinwell community did not know about until 2018. 

The residents were shocked by the idea of returning the cross to its original home — saying they thought the village was destroyed and gone, former British churchwarden June Dodkin told SWNS.

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"We were open-mouthed," she said. 

"No one had ever thought of doing that," she added of returning the cross.

After several months of writing to the mayor of Doingt, Dodkin and others from the community received a response, she noted.

"They said they would very much like their crucifix back, so we started to organize the trip," she told SWNS. 

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The trip has taken four years to put together.

It has required special permission from the chancellor of the Peterborough diocese to remove a Christ figure from a church, according to SWNS. 

Hubert Boizard, a member of a local history group in Doingt, France, said he was shocked to receive the news of the British wanting to return the cross. 

"I look forward to meeting our English friends to remember the past when their country defended France and freedom," he told SWNS. 

Upon digging into the history of the since rebuilt church, Boizard said he found a description of the original church from the founding priest, Father Carton. 

Boizard read the diary and shared some of the words from Father Carton, written after the church fell. 

"The church of Doingt is down, except for the two side walls, the apse, the main alter," he recalled from the diary's pages.

"To get to the altar, I had to climb up a pile of rubble, made of whole beams, pieces of ceiling or vault, debris from the pulpit, bricks, slates," Father Carton also wrote. 

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The journey to northern France will take those transporting the cross eight days, as SWNS reported. 

There will be a reception at the Doingt town hall, a handover ceremony and a church service to commemorate the special homecoming, the British news service also reported. 

A federal regulatory group voted Thursday to officially close king salmon fishing season along much of the West Coast after near-record low numbers of the fish, also known as chinook, returned to California's rivers last year.

The Pacific Fishery Management Council approved the closure of the 2023 season for all commercial and most recreational chinook fishing along the coast from Cape Falcon in northern Oregon to the California-Mexico border. Limited recreational salmon fishing will be allowed off southern Oregon in the fall.

"The forecasts for Chinook returning to California rivers this year are near record lows," Council Chair Marc Gorelnik said after the vote in a news release. "The poor conditions in the freshwater environment that contributed to these low forecasted returns are unfortunately not something that the Council can, or has authority to, control."

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Biologists say the chinook salmon population has declined dramatically after years of drought. Many in the fishing industry say Trump-era rules that allowed more water to be diverted from the Sacramento River Basin to agriculture caused even more harm.

The closure applies to adult fall-run chinook and deals a blow to the Pacific Northwest's salmon fishing industry.

Much of the salmon caught off Oregon originate in California’s Klamath and Sacramento rivers. After hatching in freshwater, they spend three years on average maturing in the Pacific, where many are snagged by commercial fishermen, before migrating back to their spawning grounds, where conditions are more ideal to give birth. After laying eggs, they die.

The council is an advisory group to the U.S. Secretary of Commerce, which makes the final decision, but historically has followed the council's rulings. The secretary's decision will be posted in the Federal Register within days.

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Experts fear native California salmon are in a spiral toward extinction. Already California’s spring-run chinook are listed as threatened under the Endangered Species Act, while winter-run chinook are endangered along with the Central California Coast coho salmon, which has been off-limits to California commercial fishers since the 1990s.

Recreational fishing is expected to be allowed in Oregon only for coho salmon during the summer and for chinook after Sept. 1. Salmon season is expected to open as usual north of Cape Falcon, including in the Columbia River and off Washington’s coast.

Though the closure will affect tens of thousands of jobs, few are opposed to it. Many fishers say they want to take action now to guarantee healthy stocks in the future.

They hope the unusually wet winter in California that has mostly freed the state of drought will bring relief. An unprecedented series of powerful storms has replenished most of California’s reservoirs, dumping record amounts of rain and snow and busting a severe three-year drought. But too much water running through the rivers could kills eggs and young hatchlings.