Locust Hill, Meriwether Lewis Born Here

On this hillside in Albemarle County, on August eighteenth seventeen seventy-four, Meriwether Lewis was born at the family estate called Locust Hill. He grew up roaming these Virginia woods, developing the woodcraft and botanical curiosity that would define his later life. Thomas Jefferson, a neighbor and family friend, appointed Lewis as his personal secretary before choosing him to lead the Corps of Discovery.

In eighteen oh four Lewis and William Clark set out from Camp Dubois and crossed the continent to the Pacific, returning in eighteen oh six with the first systematic record of the American West. Lewis died in eighteen oh nine under disputed circumstances at a Tennessee inn. He was thirty-five years old.

The land at Locust Hill shaped the man who mapped a continent, and the family graveyard on the property still holds the remains of his relatives.