page_title: Harry W. Child
section_title: Early life
hierarchical_section_title: Harry W. Child / Early life
caption_attribution_description: English: Stagecoach at the Mammoth Hot Springs Hotel in Yellowstone National Park, Wyoming, USA Français&#160;: Stagecoach à l'hôtel Mammoth Hot Springs dans le parc national de Yellowstone, Wyoming, États-Unis
context_page_description: Harry W. Child was an entrepreneur who managed development and ranching companies in southern Montana. He was most notable as a founder and longtime president of the Yellowstone Park Company, which provided accommodation and transportation to visitors to Yellowstone National Park from 1892 to 1980. Child was, with park superintendent and National Park Service administrator Horace Albright, singularly responsible for the development of the park as a tourist destination and for the construction of much of the park's visitor infrastructure.
context_section_description: Harry W. Child was born in San Francisco in 1857. After abandoning a course of educational preparation in Massachusetts for Harvard, Child returned to San Francisco via Panama. Back in  San Francisco he helped to establish the San Francisco Stock Exchange in 1882. He arrived in Helena, Montana with his proceeds from that venture and established himself in mining, transportation and banking. By 1887 Child was working as manager of the Gloster and Gregory silver mines, owned by J. & W. Seligman & Co.. Somewhat later, Child successfully managed the construction of a smelter in Great Falls. Child became known for a bold approach to business. In 1887 he was involved in a labor dispute at the Gregory mine, negotiating a $250,000 payment to the miners, collecting the cash in Helena, and evading robbery attempts on the way back to the mine. In hindsight, the entire incident may have been set up by Child to obscure his own management error. In 1887 he In 1889 formed the short-lived Helena, Hot Springs and Smelter Railroad. One of his partners in the venture was his brother-in-law Edmund Bach. In 1892 Child and Bach formed the Yellowstone Park Transportation Company along with partners Silas Huntley (another brother-in-law) and Aaron and L.H. Hershfeld.
caption: Stage coach at the Mammoth Hot Springs Hotel
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