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    • Hugh Glass: The Real Revenant Badass
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Home Legends

Marie Dorion: Tough Momma of Willamette Valley

by PJ DelHomme
in Legends
Marie Dorion

Marie Dorion (probably)

1786-1850

Hardship on the frontier is one thing. But throw a couple of kids under the age of 10 into the mix, and you get one hell of a miserable time. None of that stopped Marie Dorion.

A member of the Iowa tribe, Marie married Pierre Dorion as a teenager, and she accompanied him on a trip west after he was hired by John Jacob Astor’s fur-trading company to find easier routes. In tow were her five-year-old, two-year-old and one on the way. After setting out from their Midwest home, Marie gave birth to her third child nine months later in Oregon, but she lost the newborn eight days later. In January 1814, she took the kids and a horse in search of her husband’s camp somewhere in Idaho. Upon arriving, she found he had been killed and only one man was alive. She loaded half-dead man on the horse, but he died soon thereafter.

Then, upon arriving back at her home camp, she found everyone there had been slaughtered as well. She loaded up her boys and some food and started heading west out of hostile territory. For three months they crossed the snowfields of the Blue Mountains and eventually had to eat the horse they rode. After surviving the winter in the mountains and walking some 250 miles, she and her boys came to the Columbia River where the Walla Walla tribe helped her recover. She went on to remarry and have more children, the ancestors of whom settled the Willamette Valley. 

To learn more about the tough life of Marie Dorian, the US Park Service has a nice write-up about her.

Check out Montana’s most badass postmaster, Stagecoach Mary Fields.

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Crazy Canyon Journal

© 2021 Crazy Canyon Media, LLC

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No Result
View All Result
  • Home
  • About
  • Hunting
    • How to Score a Deer
    • Cool Story, Bro
    • Chuck Adams: Interview With the World’s Greatest Bowhunter
    • Yes, I Do Teach My Kids to Shoot Guns…Here’s Why
    • Randy Newberg: Here’s How to Hunt Elk Out West On Your Own
    • Wild Game Recipe: Venison Enchilada Meatballs
    • Seven Tips to Keep Your Wild Game Meat Clean in the Field
    • 10 Best Books on Hunting
    • The Best Rifle Caliber for All Big Game Hunting
  • Fishing
    • Your Guide to a Surviving a Family Fishing Trip 
    • How to Fish for Trout in Alpine Lakes
    • The Best Trout (and Moose) Fishing in Saskatchewan
    • Best Fishing Books and Stories Ever
    • Don’t Do This When Fishing with Kids
  • Legends
    • Marie Dorion: Tough Momma of Willamette Valley
    • The Life of James Beckwourth
    • George Drouillard—Lewis and Clark’s Backcountry Renaissance Man
    • Montana Pioneer Woman Stagecoach Mary Fields
    • Hugh Glass: The Real Revenant Badass
    • The Surly Life of Jeremiah “Livereatin’ ” Johnson
    • John Wesley Powell: Badass Explorer of the Grand Canyon
    • John Colter: First White Dude to See Yellowstone’s Hell on Earth
    • Who Was Jim Bridger?
    • The Life of James Beckwourth
  • The Wild Life
    • Off Grid
      • Five Ways to Keep Your Off-grid Cabin Secure
    • Bozeman, Montana: How to Ruin a Perfectly Good Mountain Town
    • Chef Kristy Crabtree on Cooking with Wild Game
    • Bozeman, Montana: How to Ruin a Perfectly Good Mountain Town
    • Cure Cabin Fever with…a Rental Cabin
    • #Buglife
    • Load Up With Royal Tine: Montana’s Hunting Guide School
    • Dog Sledding in Montana
  • Conservation
    • Montana’s Love Affair with Invasive Species
    • The Mission Mountain Wilderness Divide

© 2021 Crazy Canyon Media, LLC