Harry Yount
Encyclopedia
Henry S. Yount was an American Civil War
American Civil War
The American Civil War was a civil war fought in the United States of America. In response to the election of Abraham Lincoln as President of the United States, 11 southern slave states declared their secession from the United States and formed the Confederate States of America ; the other 25...

 soldier, mountain man
Mountain man
Mountain men were trappers and explorers who roamed the North American Rocky Mountains from about 1810 through the 1880s where they were instrumental in opening up the various Emigrant Trails allowing Americans in the east to settle the new territories of the far west by organized wagon trains...

, professional hunter
Hunting
Hunting is the practice of pursuing any living thing, usually wildlife, for food, recreation, or trade. In present-day use, the term refers to lawful hunting, as distinguished from poaching, which is the killing, trapping or capture of the hunted species contrary to applicable law...

 and trapper, prospector
Prospecting
Prospecting is the physical search for minerals, fossils, precious metals or mineral specimens, and is also known as fossicking.Prospecting is a small-scale form of mineral exploration which is an organised, large scale effort undertaken by mineral resource companies to find commercially viable ore...

, wilderness
Wilderness
Wilderness or wildland is a natural environment on Earth that has not been significantly modified by human activity. It may also be defined as: "The most intact, undisturbed wild natural areas left on our planet—those last truly wild places that humans do not control and have not developed with...

 guide
Guide
A guide is a person who leads anyone through unknown or unmapped country. This includes a guide of the real world , as well as a person who leads someone to more abstract places .-Guide - meanings related to travel and recreational pursuits:There are many variants of...

 and packer, seasonal employee of the United States Department of the Interior, and the first gamekeeper
Game warden
A game warden is an employee who has the role of protecting wildlife. Game wardens may also be referred to as conservation officers or wildlife officers...

 in Yellowstone National Park
Yellowstone National Park
Yellowstone National Park, established by the U.S. Congress and signed into law by President Ulysses S. Grant on March 1, 1872, is a national park located primarily in the U.S. state of Wyoming, although it also extends into Montana and Idaho...

. Horace Albright, second director of the National Park Service
National Park Service
The National Park Service is the U.S. federal agency that manages all national parks, many national monuments, and other conservation and historical properties with various title designations...

, called him the "father of the ranger service, as well as the first national park ranger".
He was nicknamed "Rocky Mountain Harry Yount".

Family background

Harry Yount's ancestors, Hans George Jundt and Anna Marie Jundt, arrived in Philadelphia in 1731, immigrants from Alsace-Lorraine
Alsace-Lorraine
The Imperial Territory of Alsace-Lorraine was a territory created by the German Empire in 1871 after it annexed most of Alsace and the Moselle region of Lorraine following its victory in the Franco-Prussian War. The Alsatian part lay in the Rhine Valley on the west bank of the Rhine River and east...

. One of their sons, Andrew Yount, followed in 1751, and later moved to Randolph County, North Carolina
Randolph County, North Carolina
-Notable people:*Naomi Wise, murder victim*Richard Petty - Nascar driver.*Lee Petty - Nascar pioneer. Richard Petty's father.*Kyle Petty - Nascar driver. Son of Richard Petty*Adam Petty - Nascar driver. Kyle Petty's son...

. Andrew was a Quaker, as were his children, including John Yount, Harry's paternal grandfather. Harry's parents were David Yount (1795–1881) and Catherine Shell Yount. With a number of other Quaker family members, they emigrated from North Carolina to Missouri in the 1830s.

Harry's uncle, George C. Yount
George C. Yount
George Calvert Yount was a trapper in William Wolfskill's party from New Mexico and came to California in 1831. He was the first Euro-American permanent settler in the Napa Valley, where he was the grantee of two Mexican land grants. Yountville, California is named for him.-Biography:George C...

, was a trapper and explorer who moved on from Missouri to Santa Fe
Santa Fe, New Mexico
Santa Fe is the capital of the U.S. state of New Mexico. It is the fourth-largest city in the state and is the seat of . Santa Fe had a population of 67,947 in the 2010 census...

 and then to California
California
California is a state located on the West Coast of the United States. It is by far the most populous U.S. state, and the third-largest by land area...

. In the 1830s, he became the first citizen of the United States to settle in California's Napa Valley
Napa County, California
Napa County is a county located north of the San Francisco Bay Area in the U.S. state of California. It is coterminous with the Napa, California, Metropolitan Statistical Area. As of 2010 the population is 136,484. The county seat is Napa....

, then Mexican
Mexico
The United Mexican States , commonly known as Mexico , is a federal constitutional republic in North America. It is bordered on the north by the United States; on the south and west by the Pacific Ocean; on the southeast by Guatemala, Belize, and the Caribbean Sea; and on the east by the Gulf of...

 territory. The town of Yountville
Yountville, California
Yountville is an incorporated town in Napa County, California, United States. It is in the North Bay portion of the San Francisco Bay Area. The population was 2,933 at the 2010 census. Almost one third of the town's population lives on the grounds of the Veterans Home of California.The town's name...

, California is named after him. Two of Harry's older brothers, Caleb and John Yount, also moved to the Napa Valley years later.

Date and place of birth

There are a number of conflicting accounts of Harry Yount's place and date of birth. Ernest Ingersoll
Ernest Ingersoll
Ernest Ingersoll was a renowned American naturalist, writer and explorer.A native of Monroe, Michigan, Ingersoll studied for a time at Oberlin College and afterward at Harvard University, where he was a pupil of Louis Agassiz...

 wrote that he was born in Susquehanna County, Pennsylvania
Susquehanna County, Pennsylvania
-Demographics:As of the census of 2000, there were 42,238 people, 16,529 households, and 11,785 families residing in the county. The population density was 51 people per square mile . There were 21,829 housing units at an average density of 26 per square mile...

, and birth years of 1847 and 1837 have been mentioned by various writers. However, research done by National Park Service
National Park Service
The National Park Service is the U.S. federal agency that manages all national parks, many national monuments, and other conservation and historical properties with various title designations...

 employee William R. Supernaugh found 1840 United States Census records, Yount's military enlistment papers and his Army pension file, all of which show that he was born on March 18, 1839. All these records also show that his legal name was Henry S. Yount.

Although his place of birth is not documented definitively, it is highly likely that he was born in Harmony Township, Washington County, Missouri
Washington County, Missouri
Washington County is a county located in East Central Missouri in the United States. As of the 2010 U.S. Census, the county's population was 25,195. The largest city and county seat is Potosi...

, because the 1840 census shows his father living there with a baby son. He was the tenth child born to his father, who was about 44 years old at the time of his birth. Henry was listed as 11 years old in the 1850 census. Harmony Township is a rural area about 75 miles southwest of St. Louis.

Civil War military service

Yount enlisted in the Union Army
Union Army
The Union Army was the land force that fought for the Union during the American Civil War. It was also known as the Federal Army, the U.S. Army, the Northern Army and the National Army...

 for a six-month term on November 9, 1861. He served in Company F of Phelps' Regiment
John W. Phelps
John Wolcott Phelps , was a general in the Union Army during the American Civil War, an author, an ardent abolitionist and presidential candidate.-Soldier and abolitionist:...

 of the Missouri Infantry. He was wounded in the leg in a skirmish just before the Battle of Pea Ridge
Battle of Pea Ridge
The Battle of Pea Ridge was a land battle of the American Civil War, fought on March 6–8, 1862, at Pea Ridge in northwest Arkansas, near Garfield. In the battle, Union forces led by Brig. Gen. Samuel R. Curtis defeated Confederate troops under Maj. Gen. Earl Van Dorn. The outcome of the...

 in Arkansas, and was taken prisoner by the Confederates. As a captive, he was marched over 90 miles to Fort Smith
Fort Smith National Historic Site
Fort Smith National Historic Site is a United States National Historic Site located primarily in Fort Smith, Arkansas along the Arkansas River, and also along the opposite bank of the river near Moffett, Oklahoma....

 in his bare feet on cold, wet roads, and was held there as a POW for 28 days, when he was released in a prisoner exchange. He was discharged in May 1862.

Yount re-enlisted in the Union Army in Lebanon, Missouri
Lebanon, Missouri
Lebanon is a city in Laclede County, Missouri, United States. The estimated population in July 2009 was 14,292. The population was 12,155 at the 2000 census. It is the county seat of Laclede County. The Lebanon Micropolitan Statistical Area consists of Laclede County.-Geography:Lebanon is located at...

 on August 9, 1862, and served as a private in Company H of the 8th Regiment Missouri Volunteer Cavalry
8th Regiment Missouri Volunteer Cavalry
8th Regiment Missouri Volunteer Cavalry was a Union Army regiment during the American Civil War. The regiment is best remembered for having committed what has become known as the Huntsville Massacre....

, a unit involved in 11 engagements during his service. On April 14, 1863, he was promoted to corporal. On December 9, 1863, he was promoted to sergeant, and promoted to Company Quartermaster Sergeant
Company Quartermaster Sergeant
Company quartermaster sergeant is a military rank or appointment.-Canada:A Company Quartermaster Sergeant in the Canadian Forces is the non-commissioned officer in a company who is in charge of supplies. The CQMS also serves as deputy to the Company Sergeant Major and is the second most senior NCO...

 on June 13, 1864. He was discharged in Little Rock, Arkansas
Little Rock, Arkansas
Little Rock is the capital and the largest city of the U.S. state of Arkansas. The Metropolitan Statistical Area had a population of 699,757 people in the 2010 census...

 on July 20, 1865, after the war ended.

After the war, Yount became engaged to Estella Braun, a Western Union
Western Union
The Western Union Company is a financial services and communications company based in the United States. Its North American headquarters is in Englewood, Colorado. Up until 2006, Western Union was the best-known U.S...

 employee in Detroit, Michigan
Detroit, Michigan
Detroit is the major city among the primary cultural, financial, and transportation centers in the Metro Detroit area, a region of 5.2 million people. As the seat of Wayne County, the city of Detroit is the largest city in the U.S. state of Michigan and serves as a major port on the Detroit River...

. Before their marriage could take place, she was killed in a train wreck
Train wreck
A train wreck or train crash is a type of disaster involving one or more trains. Train wrecks often occur as a result of miscommunication, as when a moving train meets another train on the same track; or an accident, such as when a train wheel jumps off a track in a derailment; or when a boiler...

. He never married.

As a result of his wound and the barefoot march to captivity, Yount developed rheumatism
Rheumatism
Rheumatism or rheumatic disorder is a non-specific term for medical problems affecting the joints and connective tissue. The study of, and therapeutic interventions in, such disorders is called rheumatology.-Terminology:...

 in both legs. When the Dependent and Disability Pension Act
Dependent and Disability Pension Act
The Dependent and Disability Pension Act was passed by the United States Congress in 1890, and signed into law by President Benjamin Harrison. It was originally vetoed by Grover Cleveland...

 passed in 1890, he became eligible for a monthly partial disability pension of $6.00 in 1892, which was raised to $12.00 a month in 1900 and $25.00 in 1912. He was an active member of the Grand Army of the Republic
Grand Army of the Republic
The Grand Army of the Republic was a fraternal organization composed of veterans of the Union Army, US Navy, US Marines and US Revenue Cutter Service who served in the American Civil War. Founded in 1866 in Decatur, Illinois, it was dissolved in 1956 when its last member died...

, the post-war organization of veterans of the Union Army.

Hunter and trapper

After the Civil War ended, Harry Yount traveled to Fort Kearny
Fort Kearny
Fort Kearny was a historic outpost of the United States Army founded in 1848 in the western U.S. during the middle and late 19th century. The outpost was located along the Oregon Trail near present-day Kearney, Nebraska, which took its name from the fort .-Origins and various missions of the...

, located along the Oregon Trail
Oregon Trail
The Oregon Trail is a historic east-west wagon route that connected the Missouri River to valleys in Oregon and locations in between.After 1840 steam-powered riverboats and steamboats traversing up and down the Ohio, Mississippi and Missouri rivers sped settlement and development in the flat...

 in Nebraska
Nebraska
Nebraska is a state on the Great Plains of the Midwestern United States. The state's capital is Lincoln and its largest city is Omaha, on the Missouri River....

. There, he was hired as an Army bullwhacker
Bullocky
A bullocky is an Australian English term for the driver of a bullock team. Bullock drivers were also known as teamsters or carriers. The American term for a bullocky is a bullwhacker.-History:...

, transporting supplies along the Bozeman Trail
Bozeman Trail
The Bozeman Trail was an overland route connecting the gold rush territory of Montana to the Oregon Trail. Its most important period was from 1863-1868. The flow of pioneers and settlers through territory of American Indians provoked their resentment and caused attacks. The U.S. Army undertook...

 between Fort Laramie in modern-day Wyoming
Wyoming
Wyoming is a state in the mountain region of the Western United States. The western two thirds of the state is covered mostly with the mountain ranges and rangelands in the foothills of the Eastern Rocky Mountains, while the eastern third of the state is high elevation prairie known as the High...

 and Fort C. F. Smith in modern-day Montana
Montana
Montana is a state in the Western United States. The western third of Montana contains numerous mountain ranges. Smaller, "island ranges" are found in the central third of the state, for a total of 77 named ranges of the Rocky Mountains. This geographical fact is reflected in the state's name,...

. Conflict with Native Americans
Indigenous peoples of the Americas
The indigenous peoples of the Americas are the pre-Columbian inhabitants of North and South America, their descendants and other ethnic groups who are identified with those peoples. Indigenous peoples are known in Canada as Aboriginal peoples, and in the United States as Native Americans...

 was ongoing in this region in those years, and Yount fought against Cheyenne
Cheyenne
Cheyenne are a Native American people of the Great Plains, who are of the Algonquian language family. The Cheyenne Nation is composed of two united tribes, the Só'taeo'o and the Tsétsêhéstâhese .The Cheyenne are thought to have branched off other tribes of Algonquian stock inhabiting lands...

 and Sioux
Sioux
The Sioux are Native American and First Nations people in North America. The term can refer to any ethnic group within the Great Sioux Nation or any of the nation's many language dialects...

 warriors several times while on the trail. In one incident, his ox wagon
Ox-wagon
An ox-wagon or bullock wagon is a four-wheeled vehicle pulled by oxen . It was a traditional form of transport, especially in Southern Africa but also in New Zealand and Australia. Ox-wagons were also used in the United States...

 was harassed for four days by a party of Sioux warriors, until he was forced to fire his carbine
Carbine
A carbine , from French carabine, is a longarm similar to but shorter than a rifle or musket. Many carbines are shortened versions of full rifles, firing the same ammunition at a lower velocity due to a shorter barrel length....

 at one warrior, hitting and probably killing the warrior's horse. Supernaugh comments that Yount believed that Indians would kill him if they could. However, he didn't "blame the Indians for defending what was their country originally."

Yount also worked as a buffalo hunter
Bison hunting
Buffalo hunting was an activity fundamental to the Plains Indian tribes of the United States, which was later adopted by American professional hunters, leading to the near-extinction of the species.- Native hunting :...

 during this period. He sold buffalo tongues for $1.00 each to tourists in Cheyenne. Yount believed that "it was a pity to kill off the buffaloes, which were here in immense numbers, but it was the only way to get rid of the Indians, as the buffalo were their main source of subsistence."

The Smithsonian Institution
Smithsonian Institution
The Smithsonian Institution is an educational and research institute and associated museum complex, administered and funded by the government of the United States and by funds from its endowment, contributions, and profits from its retail operations, concessions, licensing activities, and magazines...

 engaged Yount's services to collect specimens of animals for taxidermy
Taxidermy
Taxidermy is the act of mounting or reproducing dead animals for display or for other sources of study. Taxidermy can be done on all vertebrate species of animals, including mammals, birds, fish, reptiles, and amphibians...

 display in the early 1870s. Because he was successful in this first assignment, Spencer F. Baird of the Smithsonian retained his services in 1875 to collect specimens of many species of Rocky Mountain mammals. It is likely that many of these specimens were displayed at the Centennial Exposition
Centennial Exposition
The Centennial International Exhibition of 1876, the first official World's Fair in the United States, was held in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, from May 10 to November 10, 1876, to celebrate the 100th anniversary of the signing of the Declaration of Independence in Philadelphia. It was officially...

 in Philadelphia in 1876, as photos of the exhibit halls show this type of item. During those years, Yount also gained some success as a prospector.

In 1877, three years before he was hired in Yellowstone, Yount was the subject of a magazine profile written by Ernest Ingersoll
Ernest Ingersoll
Ernest Ingersoll was a renowned American naturalist, writer and explorer.A native of Monroe, Michigan, Ingersoll studied for a time at Oberlin College and afterward at Harvard University, where he was a pupil of Louis Agassiz...

 and published in Appletons' Journal
Appleton's Magazine
Appleton's Magazine was a monthly magazine published by D. Appleton & Co., New York in the late 19th century and the early 20th century. Originally called Appleton's Journal, it was published under that name from April, 1869 to December, 1881...

 in New York. Ingersoll described Yount's expertise as a hunter, including a story that he once killed 70 antelope
Pronghorn
The pronghorn is a species of artiodactyl mammal endemic to interior western and central North America. Though not an antelope, it is often known colloquially in North America as the prong buck, pronghorn antelope, or simply antelope, as it closely resembles the true antelopes of the Old World and...

 in one day in a competition with another hunter, but that he was ashamed of the accomplishment because "it went against his heart to kill so many innocent creatures just for the glory." Yount would fill a wagon full of freshly killed game, and then sell the meat in towns like Laramie
Laramie, Wyoming
Laramie is a city in and the county seat of Albany County, Wyoming, United States. The population was 30,816 at the . Located on the Laramie River in southeastern Wyoming, the city is west of Cheyenne, at the junction of Interstate 80 and U.S. Route 287....

 and Cheyenne
Cheyenne, Wyoming
Cheyenne is the capital and most populous city of the U.S. state of Wyoming and the county seat of Laramie County. It is the principal city of the Cheyenne, Wyoming, Metropolitan Statistical Area which encompasses all of Laramie County. The population is 59,466 at the 2010 census. Cheyenne is the...

.

Ingersoll described Yount as quite careful about his personal appearance, commenting that "his belt, holster, knife-sheath, bridle, and saddle are all set off with a barbaric glitter." Yount paid a Shoshone
Shoshone
The Shoshone or Shoshoni are a Native American tribe in the United States with three large divisions: the Northern, the Western and the Eastern....

 woman to decorate his buckskin
Buckskins
Buckskins are clothing, usually consisting of a jacket and leggings, made from buckskin, a soft sueded leather from the hide of deer or elk. Buckskins are often trimmed with a fringe — originally a functional detail, to allow the garment to dry faster when it was soaking wet because the fringe...

 jacket, "a marvel of fringes, fur trimming and intricate embroidery of beads."

Ingersoll wrote that Yount was "by nature a gentleman, and under his sinewy frame and tireless strength, there is a heart as tender as a girl's, which hates the cruelty his profession unavoidably occasions. His eye is open to every beautiful feature of the grand world in which he lives; his heart is alive to all the gentle influences of the original wilderness."

Ingersoll also described Harry Yount in his 1883 book, Knocking 'Round the Rockies, in an update based on his 1877 magazine article.

Guide for the Hayden Geological Survey

In 1872 or 1873, Yount was hired as a seasonal guide
Guide
A guide is a person who leads anyone through unknown or unmapped country. This includes a guide of the real world , as well as a person who leads someone to more abstract places .-Guide - meanings related to travel and recreational pursuits:There are many variants of...

, wrangler
Wrangler (profession)
In North America, a wrangler is someone employed to handle animals professionally, especially horses, but also other types of animals. Wranglers also handle the horses and other animals during the making of motion pictures...

 and packer
Packhorse
.A packhorse or pack horse refers generally to an equid such as a horse, mule, donkey or pony used for carrying goods on their backs, usually carried in sidebags or panniers. Typically packhorses are used to cross difficult terrain, where the absence of roads prevents the use of wheeled vehicles. ...

 for the geological survey expeditions led by Ferdinand Vandeveer Hayden
Ferdinand Vandeveer Hayden
Dr. Ferdinand Vandeveer Hayden was an American geologist noted for his pioneering surveying expeditions of the Rocky Mountains in the late 19th century. He was also a physician who served with the Union Army during the Civil War.-Early life:Ferdinand Hayden was born in Westfield, Massachusetts...

, funded by the Department of the Interior to map vast regions of the Rocky Mountains
Rocky Mountains
The Rocky Mountains are a major mountain range in western North America. The Rocky Mountains stretch more than from the northernmost part of British Columbia, in western Canada, to New Mexico, in the southwestern United States...

. Hayden had been one of the leading advocates for the creation of Yellowstone National Park
Yellowstone National Park
Yellowstone National Park, established by the U.S. Congress and signed into law by President Ulysses S. Grant on March 1, 1872, is a national park located primarily in the U.S. state of Wyoming, although it also extends into Montana and Idaho...

. President Ulysses S. Grant
Ulysses S. Grant
Ulysses S. Grant was the 18th President of the United States as well as military commander during the Civil War and post-war Reconstruction periods. Under Grant's command, the Union Army defeated the Confederate military and ended the Confederate States of America...

 signed legislation establishing the park on March 1, 1872.

Yount worked each summer for Hayden's expeditions for seven years in the 1870s, in what are now the states of New Mexico
New Mexico
New Mexico is a state located in the southwest and western regions of the United States. New Mexico is also usually considered one of the Mountain States. With a population density of 16 per square mile, New Mexico is the sixth-most sparsely inhabited U.S...

, Arizona
Arizona
Arizona ; is a state located in the southwestern region of the United States. It is also part of the western United States and the mountain west. The capital and largest city is Phoenix...

, Utah
Utah
Utah is a state in the Western United States. It was the 45th state to join the Union, on January 4, 1896. Approximately 80% of Utah's 2,763,885 people live along the Wasatch Front, centering on Salt Lake City. This leaves vast expanses of the state nearly uninhabited, making the population the...

, Wyoming
Wyoming
Wyoming is a state in the mountain region of the Western United States. The western two thirds of the state is covered mostly with the mountain ranges and rangelands in the foothills of the Eastern Rocky Mountains, while the eastern third of the state is high elevation prairie known as the High...

 and Colorado
Colorado
Colorado is a U.S. state that encompasses much of the Rocky Mountains as well as the northeastern portion of the Colorado Plateau and the western edge of the Great Plains...

. The expedition did surveying in Yellowstone in 1878. Each winter in those years, he would hunt and trap in the Laramie Range in Wyoming.

Hayden's expedition of 1878 included British mountaineer James Eccles
James Eccles
James Eccles FGS was an English mountaineer and geologist who is noted for making a number of first ascents in the Alps during the silver age of alpinism.-Life:...

 and Eccles's favorite Swiss mountain guide, Michel Payot of Chamonix
Chamonix
Chamonix-Mont-Blanc or, more commonly, Chamonix is a commune in the Haute-Savoie département in the Rhône-Alpes region in south-eastern France. It was the site of the 1924 Winter Olympics, the first Winter Olympics...

. Eccles wanted to attempt an ascent of the Grand Teton
Grand Teton
Grand Teton is the highest mountain in Wyoming's Grand Teton National Park, and a classic destination in American mountaineering.- Geography :...

. Yount served as the guide of a four-man party that included Eccles, Payot and cartographer A.D. Wilson
A.D. Wilson
A.D. Wilson - was an American cartographer.-Biography:He was born in Sparta, Illinois. He left school and in March 1867, enlisted with the Geological Survey of California. There he learned triangulation...

. Eccles and Payot were unfortunately held up by the disappearance of two mule
Mule
A mule is the offspring of a male donkey and a female horse. Horses and donkeys are different species, with different numbers of chromosomes. Of the two F1 hybrids between these two species, a mule is easier to obtain than a hinny...

s carrying their gear, and so were unable to accompany Wilson and Yount on the higher parts of the mountain. Because of the delay and the absence of the experienced Alpine climbers, Yount and Wilson had to turn back a few hundred feet short of the summit, at a spur called "The Enclosure". During the climb, Yount fell and "slipped on the treacherous ice of the surface, falling down and sliding close to a deep chasm in the glacier, where a large stream of water came down from the cliff above. The hold that his buckskin pants kept on the ice was the only thing that prevented him from being carried down into the unfathomable depths of the great crevice."

The undisputed first ascent
First ascent
In climbing, a first ascent is the first successful, documented attainment of the top of a mountain, or the first to follow a particular climbing route...

 of the Grand Teton took place 20 years later, in 1898.

The Hayden Survey was one of several regional survey projects that were combined to form the United States Geological Survey
United States Geological Survey
The United States Geological Survey is a scientific agency of the United States government. The scientists of the USGS study the landscape of the United States, its natural resources, and the natural hazards that threaten it. The organization has four major science disciplines, concerning biology,...

 in 1879.

Gamekeeper in Yellowstone National Park

Yount was hired as the first game keeper
Game warden
A game warden is an employee who has the role of protecting wildlife. Game wardens may also be referred to as conservation officers or wildlife officers...

 for Yellowstone National Park in 1880, at a salary of $1,000.00 per year, when the park's entire budget was just $15,000.00 per year. He was appointed by Carl Schurz
Carl Schurz
Carl Christian Schurz was a German revolutionary, American statesman and reformer, and Union Army General in the American Civil War. He was also an accomplished journalist, newspaper editor and orator, who in 1869 became the first German-born American elected to the United States Senate.His wife,...

, the Secretary of the Interior
Secretary of the Interior
The Secretary of the Interior may refer to:* The United States Secretary of the Interior* The Secretario de Gobernación Secretary of the Interior...

 and a former Union Army general, on June 21, 1880, and reported for duty at Yellowstone on July 6. His supervisor was Philetus Norris
Philetus Norris
Philetus W. Norris was the second superintendent of Yellowstone National Park and was the first person to be paid for that position.- Early life :...

, the 2nd park superintendent. Shortly after arriving, Yount escorted Carl Schurz and his party on a tour of the park, and then conducted a survey of the park's wildlife. Yount began constructing a winter camp at the junction of the East Fork of the Yellowstone River (now known as the Lamar River
Lamar River
The Lamar River is a tributary of the Yellowstone River, approximately 40 miles long, in northwestern Wyoming in the United States. The river is located entirely within Yellowstone National Park.-History:...

), and Soda Butte Valley. He selected this location because it allowed him to protect herds of buffalo
American Bison
The American bison , also commonly known as the American buffalo, is a North American species of bison that once roamed the grasslands of North America in massive herds...

 and elk
Elk
The Elk is the large deer, also called Cervus canadensis or wapiti, of North America and eastern Asia.Elk may also refer to:Other antlered mammals:...

 against poachers.

Yount submitted his first "Report of Gamekeeper" on November 25, 1880, which was included as Appendix A to the annual report of the Secretary of the Interior. His report described his activities since being hired, and concluded that protection of the park "cannot be done by any one man". He recommended:
In his September 30, 1881 report, Yount described how he spent the bitter winter of 1880-1881, and his efforts to prevent poaching by tourists and Indians, while engaging in what he saw as limited and reasonable hunting to provide food for the park staff. He described the range and habits of the large mammals of Yellowstone. He expressed regret for "the unfortunate breakage of my thermometer when it could not be replaced" but submitted a synopsis of the weather the previous winter. In this report, he resigned his position "to resume private enterprises now requiring my personal attention", and concluded with a clear recommendation:

There are indications that Yount had a difference of opinion with park superintendent Philetus Norris, who wanted him to spend more of his time building roads for the convenience of tourists. Yount preferred to concentrate on protecting game.

First National Park Ranger

Although Harry Yount's official job title was "gamekeeper" rather than than "park ranger", and although he only worked in Yellowstone National Park for 14 months, his two annual reports had an ongoing impact on the administration of the national parks in the United States. He is "securely positioned in the legend and culture" of the National Park Service, and is considered a figure of "historic proportion".

In a book published in 1928, Horace Albright, who later became the second director of the National Park Service
National Park Service
The National Park Service is the U.S. federal agency that manages all national parks, many national monuments, and other conservation and historical properties with various title designations...

, wrote that:
"Harry Yount pointed out in a report that it was impossible for one man to patrol the park. He urged the formation of a ranger force. So Harry Yount is credited with being the father of the ranger service, as well as the first national park ranger."


Stephen Mather, the first director of the National Park Service, wrote the forward to this book, thereby adding his endorsement to Harry Yount's role in national park history.

Homesteader and prospector

After he resigned from his job in Yellowstone, Yount lived for a while in a community called Uva in Laramie County, Wyoming
Laramie County, Wyoming
Laramie County is the most populous of the 23 counties of the U.S. state of Wyoming. The county is located in the southeastern corner of the state. The county's population was 91,738 at the 2010 census. The county seat is Cheyenne, the state capital...

. He homesteaded in the area in 1887 but his claim was sold in a sheriff's sale in 1892. He spent nearly 40 years prospecting in the Laramie Mountains, and developed copper
Copper
Copper is a chemical element with the symbol Cu and atomic number 29. It is a ductile metal with very high thermal and electrical conductivity. Pure copper is soft and malleable; an exposed surface has a reddish-orange tarnish...

 and graphite
Graphite
The mineral graphite is one of the allotropes of carbon. It was named by Abraham Gottlob Werner in 1789 from the Ancient Greek γράφω , "to draw/write", for its use in pencils, where it is commonly called lead . Unlike diamond , graphite is an electrical conductor, a semimetal...

 claims. He settled in Wheatland
Wheatland, Wyoming
Wheatland is a town in and the county seat of Platte County in southeastern Wyoming, United States. The population was 3,548 at the 2000 census.-Geography:Wheatland is located at ....

, Wyoming, and worked on developing a marble
Marble
Marble is a metamorphic rock composed of recrystallized carbonate minerals, most commonly calcite or dolomite.Geologists use the term "marble" to refer to metamorphosed limestone; however stonemasons use the term more broadly to encompass unmetamorphosed limestone.Marble is commonly used for...

 claim west of there. Long after his death, in the 1970s, this claim finally went into production. It yielded crushed marble for landscaping
Landscaping
Landscaping refers to any activity that modifies the visible features of an area of land, including:# living elements, such as flora or fauna; or what is commonly referred to as gardening, the art and craft of growing plants with a goal of creating a beautiful environment within the landscape.#...

 and aquarium
Aquarium
An aquarium is a vivarium consisting of at least one transparent side in which water-dwelling plants or animals are kept. Fishkeepers use aquaria to keep fish, invertebrates, amphibians, marine mammals, turtles, and aquatic plants...

 purposes.

Death

Yount was actively involved in prospecting until the day before his death, when he had been looking for a ride to inspect a possible gold deposit. On May 16, 1924 he walked into downtown Wheatland, as was his daily habit, where he collapsed and died of heart failure near a Lutheran church.

He was buried in the Lakeview Cemetery in Cheyenne, where his headstone reads, "Q.M. SGT HARRY S. YOUNT CO.H 8 MO. CAV."

Legacy

Younts Peak
Younts Peak
Younts Peak is a peak in the Absaroka Range in northwestern Wyoming in the United States and the highest point in the Teton Wilderness. The Yellowstone River is formed near the peak from two streams that rise on the northern and southern ridges of the peak and join at the base of the western ridge...

, (12,156 feet) located in the Absaroka Range
Absaroka Range
The Absaroka Range is a sub-range of the Rocky Mountains in the United States. The range stretches about 150 mi across the Montana-Wyoming border, forming the eastern boundary of Yellowstone National Park and the western side of the Bighorn Basin. The range borders the Beartooth Mountains...

 at the headwaters of the Yellowstone River
Yellowstone River
The Yellowstone River is a tributary of the Missouri River, approximately long, in the western United States. Considered the principal tributary of the upper Missouri, the river and its tributaries drain a wide area stretching from the Rocky Mountains in the vicinity of the Yellowstone National...

, is named after Harry Yount. The name of the peak was bestowed by the Hayden Geological Survey.

Harry Yount is "credited with setting the standards for performance and service by which the public has come to judge the rangers of today".

In 1994, the National Park Service
National Park Service
The National Park Service is the U.S. federal agency that manages all national parks, many national monuments, and other conservation and historical properties with various title designations...

 established the Harry Yount Award, given annually to an employee whose "overall impact, record of accomplishments, and excellence in traditional ranger duties have created an appreciation for the park ranger profession." This award is given both nationally and regionally.

External links

  • Harry Yount (1837–1924) at the National Park Service
    National Park Service
    The National Park Service is the U.S. federal agency that manages all national parks, many national monuments, and other conservation and historical properties with various title designations...

The source of this article is wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.  The text of this article is licensed under the GFDL.
 
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