The above view from Fort Vancouver on the banks of the Columbia River looking east to Mt. Hood is what I saw through much of my childhood. No wonder I became fascinated with Marguerite McLoughlin and wanted to tell her story.
This is my favorite time of year with days growing longer and spring on its way. I’m currently enjoying friends and writing in NE Mississippi’s mild climate before returning in May to family and our small Minnesota farm. I’m blessed to enjoy the best of both worlds. And tomorrow is Ground Hog’s Day. I hope he gives all of us an early spring!
I’ve been learning about Marguerite and writing bits of Wilderness Wife for years. She would be amazed to have her story told but made such courageous choices, she lived a life that inspires us all. I’m also researching her pemmican recipe to recreate if I can find the right ingredients. I’m pleased Wilderness Wife releases February 15th. Meanwhile, I’m back writing the second half of Strong Currents, Book 2 in the WWII Columbia River Undercurrents series, the sequel to Books Afloat. It releases Nov. 29th, 2022. I love seeing book babies safely born. Thanks for being happy with me. I hope you will read and enjoy Wilderness Wife and the other books I write. Below I’m sharing a few interesting facts about Marguerite and John. More will follow in later installments.
Marguerite Wadin MacKay McLoughlin, the real-life heroine of Wilderness Wife, was the second woman to cross North America to the Pacific Ocean by foot and canoe after Sacajawea.
At age seven, Marguerite and her Native American mother saw their brave father and husband, Swiss fur-trader father, Jean Etienne Wadin, fatally shot by Peter Pond, a jealous competitor. Wadin lingered three days and forgave his murderer for what Pond said was an accident although witnesses heard comments proving it was murder.
Marguerite’s first husband, explorer Alex MacKay, abandoned her and their four children after seventeen years of marriage to go to Montréal to seek greater fortune and choose a society wife, informing Marguerite their wilderness marriage contract was void. She was an excellent markswoman and did well not to shoot him.
Marguerite’s second husband, the love of her life, Dr. John McLoughlin, voluntarily joined fourteen men to defend them, including six mixed blood Métis, falsely charged with the 1816 Seven Oaks Massacre. All were sent to Montréal on trial for their lives. If they had been found guilty, they all would have hung.
The man arresting those accused of the Seven Oaks Massacre, Scotland’s Lord Selkirk, misjudged Canada’s winter. He made his prisoners travel east too late in the season. When one very overloaded canoe capsized in Lake Superior, eight prisoners drowned and McLoughlin was pulled unconscious from the water. At age thirty-four, that ordeal instantly turned his thick head of hair snow white. After he was always called the White-Headed Eagle.
I can’t wait to read Wilderness Wife!