Madame Dorion Memorial Park

A park near the confluence of the Walla Walla River and the Columbia honors Marie Dorion, the daughter-in-law of Pierre Dorion, Sr., whom the Expedition encountered in June 1804 in the vicinity of Yankton, SD. Marie was the daughter of an Iowa Indian mother and a French Canadian father. She, her husband Pierre Dorion, Jr., and two young sons were part of the Wilson Price Hunt party on 1811-12 that was the first to travel the route of what would become the Oregon Trail from east to west. She was the second woman after Sacagawea to travel to the Pacific Coast by land. On a later return trip, she endured three months of extreme cold and tremendous hardship that killed her husband and a third child born on that journey. She survived three husbands in all and died in St. Louis, Oregon on September 5, 1850. Marie Dorion is recognized as an important pioneering Oregonian by having her name painted in the senate chamber of the state capitol building.

Accessible from the north bank of the Walla Walla River near the bridge, the park offers a memorial boulder honoring her as well as a peaceful location for contemplation. Another memorial to her stands on the grounds of the Catholic Church in the town of St. Louis, about 35 miles south of Portland, OR.