[Gutenberg 4206] • The Letters of Franklin K. Lane, Personal and Political

Franklin Knight Lane (1864-1921) was a Canadian-American Democratic politician. He attended the University of California, Class of 1886, where he was a member of the Chi Phi Fraternity. During the 1906 San Francisco earthquake and fire he was a member of Mayor Eugene Schmitz's Committee of Fifty. President Woodrow Wilson appointed him Secretary of the Interior in 1913 and he served until 1920. The accomplishments of his tenure include the formation of the National Park Service and the move of the Department headquarters from the Patent Office building to its own building. He was interested in the Interior Department's internal welfare and formed the Home Club to promote fellowship and teamwork. Lane died May 18, 1921 in Rochester, Minnesota, and his ashes were scattered over Yosemite. He became better known posthumously by being quoted in Vladimir Nabokov's novel Pale Fire.