Meriwether Lewis and William Clark, leaders of the 1803-06 journey to the Pacific, visited Shelbyville several times. In Nov. 1806, on the expedition's return, Lewis arrived with expedition veterans and Mandan and Osage Indian delegations bound for Washington, DC. In Shelbyville on Oct. 28, 1809, Clark, traveling eastward, learned of the death of his expedition partner, Meriwether Lewis, when he read a newspaper report that Lewis had killed himself in Tennessee.