Meriwether Lewis Historic Site

We stopped early for the evening at the Meriwether Lewis Historic Site. After finding a campsite (it is first-come, first-served, but there aren’t a lot of folks here tonight), we unhooked the Jeep and drove to the historic site.

The exhibit here was very interesting. A few points to note:

• One of the things that I thought about when we traveled the Trace a few days ago, and took a picture on the history of the Trace, was that the US government allocated funds for improving the Trace, and just a short time later (30 years) it was no longer needed due to the ability for steamships to carry messages. It occurred to me that we deal with that today, where the government sees a need, allocates funds to address it, and it seems it is hardly addressed before the need for that goes away – so things really never change much.
• Here at the exhibit, there was information about the fact that Lewis was chosen by President Thomas Jefferson to find a water route to the west (which they didn’t end up finding, but still accomplished a lot). After Lewis got back to DC, Jefferson sent him to be a governor over the territory at St Louis. Lewis headed that way, but after he was there, James Madison was elected president, and refused to pay the costs that Lewis had incurred as governor; since Lewis was put into place by the former president, Madison did not see a need to continue to meet the agreements that were executed by his predecessor. Not much difference from today! 
•  I was shocked to read here that it is pretty certain that Lewis committed suicide at 35 years of age, at a home that previously stood close to this location. #1 it was disheartening to think that someone who had accomplished so much seemed to be so depressed that he would think to take his own life (though it may have been that he was suffering from some other illness that was taking his life anyway). #2 it was surprising that this is not something we ever learned in school – I guess educators didn’t want kids to know about someone committing suicide? I think it could have been a good discussion point, that anyone can suffer from depression, even someone who has accomplished a lot in their lives, but that nothing should cause us to be willing to take our own lives.

We also saw the memorial erected where he was buried – appropriately it is a column that is broken off, signifying his life broken off too young.

Memorial for Meriwether Lewis' burial spot

A nearby section of the "Old Trace"