Born August 18, 1774; Meriwether Lewis was an American explorer, soldier, politician, public administrator, and the leader of the Louisiana expedition group known as the Corps of Discovery. During the first few years of his life, Meriwether grew up on his family’s estate in Ivy Creek, Virginia. After the death of Meriwether’s father in 1779, Meriwether’s mother Lucy Meriwether remarried to John Marks who later moved the family to Broad River Valley, Georgia in 1780. At his new home, Meriwether was influenced by his love for natural history and spent most of his time improving his skills as an outdoorsman, and it is said that he would go out hunting with his dogs at the age of eight. Meriwether’s mother who was a regionally-known herbalist