Office. William A. Richards opened the Apache, Comanche, and Wichita Indian Reservations in Oklahoma to settlement. In 1903, Richards was appointed Commissioner of the General Land Office by President Theodore Roosevelt, serving until 1907. During his tenure he helped save Indian ruins and other important monuments from damage and destruction by asking Edgar L. Hewett of New Mexico for a list of sites that should be protected. Hewett sent back a Memorandum that listed Mesa Verde, Chaco Canyon and many others, and Richards had it published as a Circular. The memorandum was a step toward the passage of the Antiquites Act of 1906, which has been used by American presidents to set aside innumerable National Monuments. In 1909 Richards became the first Commissioner for Taxation for the state of Wyoming, holding the post until a change in administration a year later. In 1912, he traveled to Melbourne, Australia, to start a new life after the violent deaths of his daughter Edna and her husband, Thomas Jenkins. Death Richards died of a heart attack soon after his arrival in Australia, in July 1912. He had attended an honorary banquet for his old friend Elwood Mead, former State Engineer of Wyoming, who was then in charge of developing irrigation in that country. Mead accompanied Richards's body home across the ocean. Richards is interred at Lakeview Cemetery, in Cheyenne, Wyoming. References External links Wyoming Cadastral Survey Richards bioBureau of Land Management Wyoming State biographyWyoming State Archives, Wyoming Blue Book Wiki at Nebraska State Historical Society National Governors Association The Political Graveyard "A Surveyor in the Governor's Office: William A. Richards", Wyoming Postscripts. March 9, 2015. Retrieved 22 January 2016. Governor William A. Richards papers, RG0001.14, Wyoming State Archives. 1849 births 1912 deaths Governors of Wyoming People of Wisconsin in the American Civil War People from Hazel Green, Wisconsin General Land Office Commissioners Wisconsin Republicans Republican Party governors of Wyoming 19th-century American politicians