Ms. Strasen spent months studying the path of the mighty Columbia River. She scoured topographical maps, history, the people who lived along it, and its importance. She spent months at her loom weaving the story of the river, from headwaters in Canada to its termination into the Pacific Ocean. She marked dams along the way as the scars on the river and to the populace, the land as it changes from desert to lush forest, all while creating a breathtaking textile. She made individual weavings of many of the tributaries that give life to the communities along them.