page_title: Lewis Wetzel
section_title: Death and legacy
hierarchical_section_title: Lewis Wetzel / Death and legacy
caption_attribution_description: English: Lewis Wetzel resting place located in McCreary Cemetery, New Vrindaban, WV, US
context_page_description: Lewis Wetzel was a scout, frontiersman and Indian fighter. Raised in what is now the Northern Panhandle of West Virginia, his exploits once hailed as similar to those of Daniel Boone.
context_section_description: Accounts about his final years vary. He had no known children, although several of his siblings had children, and some were named in his honor. Most likely Lewis Wetzel died in 1808 in Natchez, Mississippi, at the residence of his cousin Philip Sykes, since a skeleton matching Wetzel's description including the long hair was exhumed along with a rifle and other equipment at Sykes' former farm. The remains were reinterred in the McCreary Cemetery in Marshall County, West Virginia. Some believe Wetzel married a Spanish woman, settled along the Brazos River and died in 1839.
  Another Lewis Wetzel (1825–1862) of Point Pleasant, West Virginia (judge and newspaper editor) was one of the founders of the state of West Virginia, but murdered by another pro-Union founder, John Hall
  Martin Wetzel's direct descendant, Robert Lewis Wetzel (his middle name reflecting this scout), of Clarksburg, West Virginia, was a veteran of the Korean and Vietnam wars, and rose to the rank of Lieutenant General and Corps commander during the Cold War.
  Among places in West Virginia, Wetzel County, West Virginia, is named for him or his family, as is the Lewis Wetzel Wildlife Management Area. West Virginia has erected historical markers commemorating the Wetzel family near Limestone in Marshall County and specifically mentions Lewis Wetzel on the markers for Fort Beeler and Terra Alta in Preston County. An Ohio historical marker notes Lewis Wetzel's involvement in the Broadhead Massacre of peaceful Indians at the Moravian mission.Zane Grey, the great Western novelist, wrote about Wetzel in his books Betty Zane, The Spirit of the Border, and The Last Trail. More recently Allan W. Eckert recounts Wetzel's exploits in That Dark and Bloody River.
caption: Lewis Wetzel resting place, McCreary Cemetery, Marshall County, WV
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