Episode 3 of 3

Establishment of the Department

When: March 3, 1849
Where: Main Interior Building
Part of: United States Department of the Interior is established

The Department of the Interior was established on March 3, 1849, in Washington, D.C., following a Senate vote of 31 to 25.

The bill authorizing the department's creation passed the House on February 15, 1849. After spending just over two weeks in the Senate, the department was established on March 3, 1849, the eve of President Zachary Taylor's inauguration. The Senate vote was 31 to 25.

Sources

United States Department of the Interior Wikipedia, revision of 2026-09-27

Machine-drafted from the cited Wikipedia passages and checked by a reviewing model, not by a human editor. Every passage cites the revision it was written from; dates and places follow those passages.