Lewis later died under mysterious circumstances

Meriwether Lewis, a well-known explorer, passes away on October 11, 1809, in the early hours of the morning after spending the night at Grinder's Tavern along the Natchez Trace in Tennessee.

Lewis and William Clark had finished their expedition of the newly acquired Louisiana Territory and the Pacific Northwest three years ago. Lewis became well-known and was honored across the country as a consequence, but he struggled to adjust to life in the civilized East after his return. He was chosen governor of the Louisiana Territory by President Thomas Jefferson, but Lewis quickly realized that the territory's complicated politics and power conflicts were making him more enemies than allies. Washington, D.C. officials were also challenging the legality of some of the purchases Lewis had made for the expedition in 1803, posing the risk of Lewis going bankrupt if he had to pay for these expenses personally. To the sorrow of his close friend and mentor, Thomas Jefferson, Lewis finally failed to finish the work required to publish the critically significant scientific and geographical material he and Clark had accumulated in their notebooks some three years after the end of their expedition.

Due to all of these factors, the majority of recent historians have concluded that Lewis committed suicide as a result of his severe depression and the enormous amount of problems he carried.