He was not an intellectual........but a natural explorer..........even as a kid............i read he would take his dogs into the woods to explore by himself..........barefooted............he was more of an intellectual than George Rogers Clark though......................who is even a worse speller than i am.......

Freemasonry[edit]

Lewis was a Freemason, initiated, passed and raised in the "Door To Virtue Lodge No. 44" in Albemarle, Virginia, between 1796 and 1797.^[19] On August 2, 1808, Lewis and several of his acquaintances submitted a petition to the Grand Lodge of Pennsylvania requesting dispensation to establish a lodge in St. Louis. Lewis was nominated and recommended to serve as the first Master of the proposed Lodge, which was warranted as Lodge No. 111 on September 16, 1808.^[20] (See List of Notable Freemasons)

Death[edit]

Meriwether Lewis National Monument located at milepost 385.9 on the Natchez Trace Parkway.

On September 3, 1809, Lewis set out for Washington, D.C., where he hoped to resolve issues regarding the denied payment of drafts he had drawn against the War Department while serving as governor of the Upper Louisiana Territory, leaving him in potentially ruinous debt. Lewis carried his journals with him for delivery to his publisher. He intended to travel to Washington by ship from New Orleans, but changed his plans while floating down the Mississippi River from St. Louis. He disembarked and decided instead to make an overland journey via the Natchez Trace and then east to Washington. (The Natchez Trace was the old pioneer road betweenNatchez, Mississippi, and Nashville, Tennessee). Robbers preyed on travelers on that road and sometimes killed their victims.^[21] Lewis had written his will before his journey and also attempted suicide on this journey, but was restrained.^[22]