Columbus Delano - Secretary of Interior

Secretary of Interior

Delano served as Commissioner of Internal Revenue until November 1, 1870 when President Ulysses S. Grant appointed him Secretary of the Interior. With the Interior Department's varied and diverse responsibilities increasing at a rapid rate, it had become a place with numerous administrative problems. For the department head, controlling the bureaus and shaping policy was a daunting task and during Delano's time as Secretary, he faced many problems but managed to last longer in the job than any other 19th-century incumbent. In 1871, Sec. Delano organized an expedition into Yellowstone whose discoveries influenced Congress and President Grant to sign into law America's first national park that federally protected public land from settler intrusion. Delano also had to contend with hostile Native American tribes and aggressive settlers during a time of rapid American westward expansion brought on by the completion of the Transcontinental Railroad. During his tenure as Secretary of the Interior, the town of Delano, California, founded on July 14, 1873, was named in his honor. Under Sec. Delano's tenure corruption permeated in the Department of Interior as bogus agents in the Bureau of Indian Affairs and fraudulent clerks in the Patent Office made tremendous profits at the expense of tax payers and Native Americans. Delano resigned because of evidence that his son, John Delano, had been given partnerships in surveying contracts over which the Interior Department had control.