“The lady of the house heard two gunshots go off in the middle of the night and found Meriwether dead the next morning.”

Meriwether Lewis is most famous for his expeditions with William Clark that mapped the United States from the Louisiana purchase to the Pacific Ocean.

Meriwether’s death is shroud in mystery. In the fall of 1809, he was making his way to Washington DC when he stopped for the night at the Grinder’s house on October 10, 1809, in Tennesse on the Natchez Trace trail.

The lady of the house heard two gunshots go off in the middle of the night and found Meriwether dead the next morning. Meriweather was in debt, suffered from syphilis, and remained unmarried.

Many believe that he committed suicide due to syphilis-imposed insanity, but some believe that he was murdered by bandits or political enemies.

Meriwether was buried a few hundred yards from his death place in Pioneer Cemetery. At a later date in the 1920s, a monument was erected over his burial location.The Grinders house also stands as a replica to the original, not far from the cemetery.

The area is mostly used for camping and hiking as a stop on the historic Natchez Trace trail.

Address: GG4R+XP, Meriwether Lewis Park Rd, Hohenwald, TN 38462