1949 Ralph Shane Pictorial Map of Warm Springs Indian Reservation, Oregon

Ralph M. Shane (1910 - July 12, 1984) was an artist and U.S. government engineer. Born near Edelstein, Illinois, Shane's parents moved the family to Pipestone, Minnesota, at a young age, where he attended public schools. After graduating from high school, Shane attended the University of Colorado before transferring to the South Dakota School of Mines and graduated in 1935 with a B.S. in engineering. After graduation, he found a job with the South Dakota State Highway Commission and drafted strip and right-of-way maps. In November 1936, Shane joined the Bureau of Indian Affairs as an engineering draftsman. He was promoted to junior road engineer the following year. The Bureau transferred him to Sacramento, California, in January 1939 to work as chief of a road survey party. Shane worked as a road engineer for the Bureau of Indian Affairs across the western United States through the 1940s and 1950s, except for a four-month furlough in 1943 when he served as a Navy ensign. He left the Bureau of Indian Affairs in 1955 and bought the New Town, North Dakota, News, and edited the paper for two years before returning to the Bureau of Indian Affairs. He retired from the Bureau in 1979. Shane was married twice. First to Jeanette Wildman, whom he married in 1936, and second to Carolyn Mae Hodgkinson, whom he married on July 14, 1944. He had four children. More by this mapmaker...