X-Nico

13 unusual facts about United States Secretary of the Interior


Edward C. Wall

He had an arrangement with the Northern Pacific Railroad which allowed him a fee for every acre of land he was able to recover from public domain lands granted to the railroad and later confiscated; he credited much of his success to his friendship with Vilas, and with United States Secretary of the Interior Hoke Smith and U.S. Chief Land Commissioner Silas W. Lamoreaux.

Frank P. Briggs

He resumed the newspaper publishing business and was chairman of the Missouri State Conservation Commission in 1955-1956; from 1961 to 1965 he was Assistant Secretary of the Interior for Fish and Wildlife.

George Griswold

On March 8, 1853, Michigan Governor Robert McClelland resigned to become Secretary of the Interior under Franklin Pierce.

George H. Bender

Bender then worked as special assistant to the Secretary of the Interior from June 1957 to May 1958, during which time he campaigned for the incorporation of Alaska as the 49th state.

Harry Ford Sinclair

Harry Sinclair's high-profile image as a reputable American business leader and sportsman came under question in April 1922 when the Wall Street Journal reported that United States Secretary of the Interior Albert B. Fall had granted an oil lease to Sinclair Oil without competitive bidding.

Italia Federici

Federici was also a political aide to Secretary of the Interior and CREA co-founder Gale Norton.

James W. McDill

In March 1881, he was appointed by Governor John H. Gear to fill the U.S. Senate vacancy caused by the resignation of Samuel J. Kirkwood, whom President James A. Garfield had appointed Secretary of the Interior.

John Coit Spooner

A popular figure in Republican politics, he turned down three cabinet posts during his political career: Secretary of the Interior in President William McKinley's administration in 1898, Attorney General under President McKinley in 1901, and Secretary of State in President William Howard Taft's administration in 1909.

Louis C. Cramton

He was special assistant to the U.S. Secretary of the Interior in 1931 and 1932.

Mandate for Leadership

In particular, the Reagan administration hired key Mandate contributors Bill Bennett as chairman of the National Endowment for the Humanities (and later as Secretary of Education) and James G. Watt as Secretary of the Interior.

Robert L. Geddes

Later, Geddes was acting lieutenant governor again in May and June, 2006 after Lieutenant Governor Jim Risch became governor upon the resignation of Governor Dirk Kempthorne to become Secretary of the Interior until Mark Ricks, whom Governor Risch appointed to fill the vacancy in the office he left, was confirmed by the Senate.

Russell E. Havenstrite

Harold L. Ickes (1874–1952), who served as United States Secretary of the Interior from 1933 to 1946, rejected Havenstrite's demands.

South Eugene High School

--graduated at age 16--> Governor of Idaho (1971–1977, 1987–1995) and U.S. Secretary of the Interior (1977–1981)


10th Arizona Territorial Legislature

Finally, the session authorized US$2000 for Governor Frémont and Judge Charles Silent to travel to Washington, D.C., and lobby to have an order by Secretary of the Interior Carl Schurz extending boundaries of the Gila River Indian Reservation into the Salt River Valley.

Bruce Babbitt

After leading the League of Conservation Voters Babbitt served for eight years, 1993–2001, as the United States Secretary of the Interior during Bill Clinton's administration.

CALFED Bay-Delta Program

The coordination program was created in 1994 by Governor Pete Wilson and federal Interior Secretary Bruce Babbitt following a decade of chaotic disputes between the state of California, the federal government, environmental groups, agricultural interests, and municipal water services.

Corolla Wild Horses Protection Act

The Corolla Wild Horses Protection Act would direct the United States Secretary of the Interior to enter into an agreement with the Corolla Wild Horse Fund, Currituck County, and the state of North Carolina to provide for the management of free-roaming wild horses in and around the Currituck National Wildlife Refuge.

Delano Peak

The mountain is named for Columbus Delano (1809–1896), Secretary of the Interior during the Grant administration.

George Washington Woodruff

His political posts included Finance Clerk in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania Attorney General, federal judge for the territory of Hawaii, chief law officer of the US Forest Service under friend and fellow Yale alumni Gifford Pinchot, Acting Secretary of the Interior under President Theodore Roosevelt.

Gilbert S. Merritt, Jr.

When Supreme Court Associate Justice Byron White retired in 1993, Merritt was considered a potential nominee, along with Secretary of the Interior Bruce Babbitt and Stephen Breyer of the First Circuit, who was eventually nominated by President Bill Clinton and subsequently joined the Court.

Great Sioux War of 1876

They met with Grant, Secretary of the Interior Columbus Delano, and Commissioner of Indian Affairs Edward Smith.

Jacob D. Cox House

A native of Montréal in Lower Canada, Cox settled in Ohio in the 1840s, served in the Ohio Senate from 1859 to 1861, and later served as the United States Secretary of the Interior during the Grant administration.

Leonard Swett

He was appointed by Secretary of the Interior John Palmer Usher to negotiate disputed claims to New Almaden Quicksilver Mine.

Linconia

Linconia was the name of a proposed Central American colony suggested by United States Senator Samuel Pomeroy of Kansas in 1862, after U.S. President Abraham Lincoln asked the Senator and United States Secretary of the Interior Caleb Smith to work on a plan to resettle African Americans from the United States.

Montauk Point Light

On March 2, 2012 United States Secretary of the Interior Ken Salazar officially designated the lighthouse as a National Historic Landmark; it is the 14th site on Long Island and the 11th lighthouse in the country to be so recognized.

Morris Thompson

When President Nixon named Hickel to serve as Secretary of the Interior in 1969, Thompson went to Washington, D.C., as special assistant for the Bureau of Indian Affairs.

My First Days in the White House

Secretary of the Interior: Lytle Brown

Saxbe fix

Senator Ken Salazar, the Secretary of the Interior, also required a Saxbe Fix by the 111th United States Congress.

Schurz, Nevada

The town was named after Secretary of the Interior Carl Schurz.

Tamarack Resort

They came to Idaho as guests of Dirk Kempthorne, the state's governor and former U.S. Senator who later became a member of Bush's cabinet as Secretary of the Interior.

United States v. Dion

The Eagle Protection Act, by its express terms, made it a federal offense to hunt bald or golden eagles anywhere within the United States unless provided a permit by the Secretary of the Interior.

William Tod Otto

Lincoln appointed him Assistant Secretary of the Interior after the previous man in the position, John Palmer Usher, was promoted to Secretary of the Interior.