The Pacific Fur Company saw the West as a massive opportunity for business growth and development, a new market for the fur trade. For Marie Dorion, a Métis woman, this enterprise was a family investment. The expedition promised a chance at wealth, but the harsh reality of the 1814 frontier offered little luxury. Instead of success, her family found tragedy when her husband was killed, leaving her and their two young children with no property and a perilous future in the unforgiving wilderness.