USNPS reverses position, will not allow exhumation of Lewis' body
CHARLOTTESVILLE -- The National Park Service has reversed a previous decision allowing Meriwether Lewis' body to be exhumed in an attempt to determine how he died.
The decision, backed by officials from the Department of the Interior, cites policies prohibiting disturbing graves that are not "threatened by destruction."
Family members had hoped their decade-long effort to have Lewis' remains studied was going to come to fruition. They hoped to determine whether he committed suicide, as the official account states, or was murdered, as many historians have come to suspect.
"We're terribly disappointed," said Howell Lewis Bowen, an Albemarle County resident and direct descendant. "We've worked with the park service through three administrations -- Clinton and Bush and now Obama -- and we thought we were finally getting somewhere."