The man who led the Corps of Discovery across a continent is buried in a quiet stand of woods in Lewis County, Tennessee, about a morning’s drive from Nashville. Most people who live here have never visited the Meriwether Lewis grave. That is a shame, because few places in the state offer a father a better opening to talk with his son about courage, service, and the cost of both.
What happened there
In the fall of 1809, Meriwether Lewis, then governor of the Louisiana Territory, was traveling toward Washington on the old Natchez Trace. He stopped at a small inn called Grinder’s Stand. By sunrise on October 11 he was dead of gunshot wounds, at the age of 35.
How he died is still argued. The National Park Service states that historical accounts support suicide, and most historians agree. A minority, along with some of Lewis’s descendants, have argued for murder and have sought to have his remains exhumed; Smithsonian magazine summarizes both sides. A boy old enough to make the trip is old enough to hear that serious people disagree, and to weigh the evidence himself.
For the full story of his life, read Warren Steury’s essay “So Hard to Die”: Meriwether’s March Across the Continent before you go.
What you will find at milepost 385.9
The site sits on the Natchez Trace Parkway near Hohenwald. According to the Park Service, it includes:
- A visitor information center in a 1935 cabin, with exhibits on the Corps of Discovery and Lewis’s final days (hours are seasonal, so call ahead).
- A paved, accessible trail with exhibits on travelers of the Natchez Trace.
- The Lewis monument and a pioneer cemetery of roughly 100 burials.
- A free campground.
The monument itself dates to 1848, when the Tennessee legislature set aside $500 to preserve the grave. Its shaft is deliberately broken at the top, a common nineteenth century symbol of a life cut short. Stand in front of it with your son and ask him what he thinks the broken column means before you tell him. He will likely get close.
There is no entrance fee.
Making it an overnight
The Meriwether Lewis Campground has 32 free sites, first come, first served, with drinking water, flush toilets, grills, and fire rings, but no electricity or showers. For a father and son, that is close to ideal: simple enough to feel like camping, comfortable enough for a first trip. Arrive early on fall weekends.
An overnight also lets you do what Lewis himself did every night of the expedition: sit by a fire and write down what you saw. Bring two notebooks.
Getting there
The Natchez Trace Parkway begins just southwest of Nashville, and the drive south is itself worth the trip: no billboards, no trucks, and a low speed limit that forces you to slow down. Stop at the Double Arch Bridge near the northern end, then continue south to the Lewis site. Our guide to the Natchez Trace near Nashville lists the best stops along the way. Leave most of a day for the round trip, more if you stop often.
How to prepare a boy for the visit
A grave is only as meaningful as what a boy knows about the man in it. A few ideas:
- Read first. Read aloud the account of the expedition’s crossing of the Bitterroot Mountains, or of the Great Falls portage, in the weeks before. Stephen Ambrose’s Undaunted Courage is the standard popular biography; older boys can handle it on their own.
- Look at a map. Trace the route from St. Louis to the Pacific and back, then find Hohenwald. The distance between the two is the point.
- Talk about the ending honestly. Lewis accomplished something almost no one else could have, and then struggled badly in the years after. That is not a story to hide from a teenage boy. It is a story about how achievement does not protect a man from despair, and about why men need friends, work, and faith to carry them after the great deed is done.
- Let him ask the questions. Why did he stop here? Who found him? What happened to Clark? You do not need every answer. Looking them up together afterward is part of the trip.
More history in reach of Nashville
The Lewis site is one of several places within a few hours of the city where Tennessee history can be touched rather than read about. Our guide to teaching history to a teenage boy explains why visiting places matters so much, and our piece on John Colter’s escape tells the story of another member of the Corps of Discovery.
Meriwether Academy hosts lectures, symposia, and outdoor trips for men and boys around Nashville. If a day on the Trace leaves your son wanting more, see what is on the calendar.