In 1809, renowned explorer Meriwether Lewis traveled up the Old Natchez Trace on his way to Washington, D.C., stopped at an inn called Grinder’s Stand, and died during the night. Born in Albemarle County, Virginia, in 1774, he spent part of his childhood in Georgia attending school and joined the U.S. Militia in 1784 to help suppress the Whiskey Rebellion in Pittsburgh. As co-leader of the Corps of Discovery expedition, his final destination was the Pacific Ocean in Oregon, and afterward he moved to St. Louis to preside as governor of the Upper Louisiana Territory. In 1809 he was traveling to Washington, D.C., to address disputed charges he had made as governor; after initially planning to sail through the Gulf of Mexico and up the Atlantic Ocean, he decided to avoid British warships, headed down the Mississippi River to New Orleans, changed his route, stopped at Fort Pickering near present-day Memphis, Tennessee, and took the Old Natchez Trace.
