One account describes the children’s feet bleeding toward the end of the journey.

The same account describes Marie eventually burrowing into the snow with her sons, covering them with furs, and going for help alone when she could no longer move them.

She had been walking for months.

What The Columbia River Meant

The Columbia River, when she finally reached it, was not just geography.

In the world of the Pacific Fur Company — and its successor, the North West Company, which had acquired the assets of the Astorian enterprise after the War of 1812 disrupted Astor’s operations — the Columbia was the central artery of an entire economic system.

Furs moved down it toward the coast.