Meriwether Lewis' Snuff Box

This snuff box once belonged to Captain Meriwether Lewis (August 18, 1774 - October 11, 1809). Lewis was the leader of Thomas Jefferson's 1804-1806 Corps of Discovery, also known as the Lewis and Clark Expedition. The purpose of the expedition was to find a water route between the Missouri River and the Pacific Ocean. Although no route was found, Lewis and his men recorded a vast amount of natural, cultural, and geographicinformation. After the expedition, Jefferson appointed Lewis governor of the Upper Louisiana Territory. On his way to Washington, DC in 1809, Lewis traveled along the Old Natchez Trace. On October 10, he stopped for the night at Grinder's Stand in what is now Lewis County, Tennessee. He died the next morning of gunshot wounds and was buried near the stand along the Old Natchez Trace. In 1848, the State of Tennessee erected a monument in his honor. The site is administered by the Natchez Trace Parkway.