Childhood Hero's Come Alive

The other day we drove over to the Meriwether Lewis Monument. It's important to Dave to connect with his Early American Hero's and both Lewis and Clark are on that list. Meriwether Lewis was a troubled soul, evidently fighting bouts of depression but his genius came in the planning and completing the single most important expedition in the history of the U.S.! The Corps of Discovery, the expeditions official name, led to the opening of the west, at least 20 years earlier than it normally would have and prepared those that followed with information they needed to succeed.  After the expedition,  Lewis felt as if he had failed, that is, for NOT finding the supposed Northwest Passage. He found solace in the bottom of the liquor bottle. Roughly four years after the Corps of Discovery's return, he was on his way to Washington D.C. and Philadelphia to conduct business relating to War Department and edit the book/notes/ledgers for publishing, when he stopped for the evening at Grinders Stand a wayside lodge on the Natchez Trace. Something happened that night, that is controversial to this day. Meriwether Lewis died, whether by murder or by suicide, that is the debate. However, on the night of Oct 11, 1809 he died of 2 gunshot wounds.
He is currently buried about 300 yards from the cabin in which he was killed. He lies under a fitting monument to his great achievements,.  The Grinders cabin is restored and one can enter into it to view the furnishings.
On this day, the Federal Gov't shutdown was in full bloom! We encountered barricades, signs and questions of our own!  What to do?  We parked on the side of the road, walked around the barricades, walked the 300 yards to the cabin, the second 300 yards to the monument.  We took our pictures, read the information, walked on the original Trace for about 100 yards and departed.  We  were the only ones to do that, but we did see others turn their vehicles around and depart.




Another day, we went to a local state park on the outskirts of Lawrenceburg, TN. That state park is named for the pioneer, frontiersman, politician, folk hero, militia leader, businessman, farmer David Crockett. David Crockett was born in NE Tennessee moved to this area in 1817 as an adult, then built a grist mill, powder mill and distillery on Shoal Creek. It is his old property that is now David Crockett State Park.  Nothing remains of the buildings he made on the edge of the creek as it was all swept away in a massive flood in Sept 1821. When that happened he moved to Carroll county about 100 miles away, then 14 years later was killed at the Battle of Alamo for the Republic of Texas on March 6th, 1836.

One of the blights on the early U.S. government, is known officially as the Indian Removal Act of 1830. The removal included many members of the Cherokee, Muscogee Creek, Seminole, Chickasaw and Choctaw nations, among others. These Native Americans were forced from their ancestral homelands to "Indian Territory" in eastern sections of present day Oklahoma. The Trail of Tears follows many paths, as there were several routes followed, but most of the routes came through downtown Lawrenceburg, TN going out toward the old Crockett farm on Shoal Creek then on toward Oklahoma. The intrepid touring RV'er can visit and drive many sections of the original Trail. There is a series of signs posted along Hwy 64 leading to "old Hwy 64"  and the original trail.