Mondell, Frank

Mondell, Frank (Wheeler)

(1860–1939) U.S. representative; born in St. Louis, Mo. Orphaned at age seven, he was raised by a minister in rural Iowa before heading west where he prospected for coal and discovered the Cambria coal mine in the late 1880s. In the U.S. House of Representatives (Rep., Wyo.; 1895–97, 1899–1923) he advocated rapid expansion in the West and opposed the conservation efforts of the Forest Service, thereby angering President Theodore Roosevelt.