Harry Yount Henry S . Yount ( March 18 , 1839 – May 16 , 1924 ) was an American Civil War soldier , mountain man , professional hunter and trapper , prospector , wilderness guide and packer , seasonal employee of the United States Department of the Interior , and the first gamekeeper in Yellowstone National Park . He was nicknamed " Rocky Mountain Harry Yount " . Yount served two terms in the Union Army during the American Civil War . He first enlisted for a six - month term in November 1861 . He was wounded and taken prisoner by the Confederate States Army in an opening skirmish of the Battle of Pea Ridge in Arkansas in March 1862 and was held as a prisoner of war for nearly a month until released in a prisoner exchange . He re - enlisted in August 1862 and served until the end of the war . He was promoted three times and was a Company quartermaster sergeant when he was discharged in July 1865 . He worked as a hunter and a prospector , and as a bullwhacker for the U . S . Army , in the years following the Civil War . For seven years in the 1870s he worked as a guide , hunter and wrangler for the expeditions of the Hayden Geological Surveys , which mapped vast areas of the Rocky Mountains . In 1880 , Yount was hired by the United States Secretary of the Interior Carl Schurz to be the first gamekeeper in Yellowstone National Park , and during his 14 months in that job wrote two annual reports for Schurz , which were then submitted to Congress . His reports described the challenges of protecting the wildlife in the first U . S . national park and influenced the culture of the National Park Service , which was founded 35 years later in 1916 . Horace Albright , the second director of the National Park Service , called Yount the " father of the ranger service , as well as the first national park ranger " . Yount was a prospector during much of the last four decades of his life . Family background and early years . Harry Yount ' s paternal ancestors , Hans George Jundt and Anna Marie Jundt , arrived in Philadelphia in 1731 , immigrants from Alsace - Lorraine . One of their sons , Andrew Yount , followed in 1751 , and later moved to Randolph County , North Carolina . 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 Yount ' s father , David Yount , was about 44 years old at the time of Harry ' s birth , and Harry was the couple ' s tenth child . Harry Yount ' s uncle , George C . Yount , was a trapper and explorer who moved on from Missouri to Santa Fe and then to California before Harry ' s birth . In the 1830s , George C . Yount became the first citizen of the United States to settle in Napa Valley in California , which was then Mexican territory . The town of Yountville , California , is named after him . Two of Harry ' s older brothers , Caleb and John Yount , also moved to the Napa Valley years later . There are conflicting accounts of Harry Yount ' s place and date of birth . Ernest Ingersoll wrote that he was born in Susquehanna County , Pennsylvania , and different birth years have been mentioned by various writers , such as the anonymous author of a published biographical sketch who wrote that Yount was born in 1847 , and Thomas J . Bryant , who interviewed Yount in the latter years of his life and speculated that 1837 was his birth date in an article published in the " Annals of Wyoming " , journal of the Wyoming State Historical Society . Research undertaken by William R . Supernaugh however , an employee of the National Park Service , found military enlistment papers , Yount ' s Army pension file , and the 1840 United States Census records , all of which indicate that Yount was born on March 18 , 1839 . These records also show that his legal name was Henry S . Yount . His lifelong nickname was " Harry " , and his middle name is unknown . Although Yount ' s place of birth is uncertain , Supernaugh concludes it is highly unlikely he was born in Pennsylvania , but rather in Harmony Township , Washington County , Missouri , because the 1840 census shows his father living there with a baby son . Henry was listed as 11 years old in the 1850 census . Harmony Township is a rural area about southwest of St . Louis . Civil War military service . Yount enlisted in the Union Army for a six - month term on November 9 , 1861 , and served in Company F of Phelps ' Regiment of the Missouri Infantry . John W . Phelps , his commanding general , was an ardent abolitionist . Yount was wounded in the leg in a skirmish just before the Battle of Pea Ridge on March 6 , 1862 , and taken prisoner by the Confederates . As a captive , he was marched more than to Fort Smith in his bare feet on cold , wet roads , and was held there as a POW for 28 days before his release in a prisoner exchange . He was discharged from the Union Army in May 1862 . Yount re - enlisted in Lebanon , Missouri , on August 9 , 1862 , and served as a private in Company H of the 8th Regiment Missouri Volunteer Cavalry , a unit involved in 11 combat engagements during his service . On April 14 , 1863 , he was promoted to corporal . He was promoted to sergeant on December 9 , 1863 , and to Company Quartermaster Sergeant on June 13 , 1864 . He was discharged in Little Rock , Arkansas , on July 20 , 1865 , after the war had ended . As a result of his barefoot march to captivity , Yount developed rheumatism in both feet . When the Dependent and Disability Pension Act passed in 1890 , he became eligible for a monthly partial disability pension of $ 6 in 1892 , which was raised to $ 12 a month in 1900 and $ 25 in 1912 . Yount was later an active member of the Grand Army of the Republic , the post - war organization of veterans of the Union Army . Bullwhacker , hunter and trapper . After the Civil War ended , Yount became engaged to Estella Braun , a Western Union employee in Detroit , Michigan . She was killed in a train wreck before their wedding could take place , and he never married . Yount traveled to Fort Kearny , along the Oregon Trail in Nebraska . There he was hired as an Army bullwhacker , transporting supplies by wagon along the Bozeman Trail between Fort Laramie in modern - day Wyoming and Fort C . F . Smith in modern - day Montana . There was conflict with Native Americans in this region in those years , and Yount fought against Cheyenne and Sioux warriors several times while on the trail . In one incident , his ox wagon was targeted for four days by a party of Sioux warriors , until he fired his carbine at one warrior , hitting and probably killing the warrior ' s horse . Supernaugh comments that Yount believed that Indians would kill him if they could , but that he did not " blame the Indians for defending what was their country originally . " Yount also worked as a buffalo hunter during this period . He sold buffalo tongues for $ 1 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 engaged Yount ' s services to collect specimens of animals for taxidermy display in the early 1870s . Because he was successful in this first assignment , Spencer F . Baird of the Smithsonian again retained Yount ' s services in 1875 to collect specimens of many species of Rocky Mountain mammals . It is likely that many of these were displayed at the Centennial Exposition in Philadelphia in 1876 , as extant photos of the exhibit halls show similar specimens . During those years , Yount also began his long career as prospector , achieving some success . In 1877 , Yount was the subject of a magazine profile written by Ernest Ingersoll and published in " Appletons ' Journal " in New York . Ingersoll described Yount ' s expertise as a hunter , including a story that he once killed 70 antelope in one day during a competition with another hunter , but that Yount 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 such as Laramie and Cheyenne . According to Ingersoll , Yount was quite careful about his personal appearance : " his belt , holster , knife - sheath , bridle , and saddle are all set off with a barbaric glitter . " Yount paid a Shoshone woman to decorate his buckskin 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 ' s 1883 book , " Knocking ' Round the Rockies " , describes Yount in a similar fashion . Guide for the Hayden Geological Survey . In 1872 or 1873 , Yount was hired as a seasonal guide , wrangler and packer for geological survey expeditions with the aim of mapping broad swaths of the Rocky Mountains . The Hayden Survey , led by Ferdinand Vandeveer Hayden and funded by the Department of the Interior , was one of several regional survey projects that were combined to form the United States Geological Survey in 1879 . Hayden had been one of the leading advocates for the creation of Yellowstone National Park , which President Ulysses S . Grant signed into law on March 1 , 1872 . Yount worked for Hayden ' s expeditions each summer for seven years during the 1870s , in what are now the states of New Mexico , Arizona , Utah , Wyoming and Colorado . Each winter during the period , Yount would hunt and trap in the Laramie Range in Wyoming . In 1874 , Yount was assigned to hunt for a party led by the geologist Archibald Marvine . Yount was later charged by a " huge " grizzly bear , and fired four gunshots – one through the skull , two through the flanks , and a final shot into the heart – before the bear was brought down . During Hayden ' s expedition of 1877 , Yount engaged in mountaineering with Ingersoll and the cartographer A . D . Wilson in the Wind River Range . They were the first to ascend the south slopes of Wind River Peak , and , with Wilson , Yount was the first to ascend West Atlantic Peak . Hayden ' s expedition of 1878 conducted surveys in Yellowstone National Park and surrounding areas in 1878 . That expedition included the British mountaineer James Eccles and Eccles ' s favorite Swiss mountain guide , Michel Payot of Chamonix . Eccles wanted to attempt an ascent of the Grand Teton , then unclimbed . This was the third attempt to climb the Grand Teton by members of Hayden ' s expeditions . Yount served as the guide in a four - man party that included Eccles , Payot and Wilson . Eccles and Payot were held up by the disappearance of two mules carrying their gear , and so were unable to accompany Wilson and Yount on to the higher parts of the mountain . During the climb , Yount slipped on the ice and fell close to a deep chasm in the glacier , where water was streaming down from the cliff above . The hold of his buckskin pants on the ice reportedly prevented him from being carried down into the crevice . Wilson was quoted as saying that Yount was clinging to the rock like " a starfish hanging to a breakwater , " and that he himself lowered a rope to assist Yount . 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 . No previous party had come so close to reaching the summit . The undisputed first ascent of the Grand Teton took place 20 years later , in 1898 . Gamekeeper in Yellowstone National Park . Yount was hired as the first gamekeeper for Yellowstone National Park in 1880 , at a salary of $ 1 , 000 per year , when the park ' s entire budget was just $ 15 , 000 per year . He was appointed by Carl Schurz , the 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 , the second park superintendent . Shortly after Yount reported for duty , Yount escorted 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 and Soda Butte Valley , a location he chose because it allowed for the protection of herds of buffalo and elk 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 . He recommended : In his report of September 30 , 1881 , Yount described how he spent the unusually severe winter of 1880 – 1881 , and his efforts to prevent poaching by tourists and Indians , while still hunting to provide food for the park staff . Yount reported that snow had fallen on 66 of 90 days between December 1880 and February 1881 . He described the range and habits of Yellowstone ' s large mammals and expressed regret for " the unfortunate breakage of my thermometer when it could not be replaced , " along with a submitted 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 Norris , who wanted him to spend more of his time building roads for the convenience of tourists , while Yount preferred to concentrate on protecting the wildlife . Recognition as first National Park ranger . Although Yount ' s official job title was " gamekeeper " rather than " park ranger " , and although he only worked in Yellowstone National Park for 14 months , his two annual reports had a lasting 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 " Oh , Ranger ! " , a book published in 1928 , Horace Albright , who later became the second director of the National Park Service , 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 foreword of the book . Prospecting and later years . After Yount resigned from his job in Yellowstone , he lived for a while in Uva in Laramie County , Wyoming . 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 and graphite mining claims . He settled in Wheatland , Wyoming , and worked on developing a marble mining claim west of there . 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 , which is high and located in the Absaroka Range at the headwaters of the Yellowstone River , is named after Yount . The peak ' s name was bestowed by the Hayden Geological Survey . Long after his death , in the 1970s , Yount ' s marble mining claim finally went into production . It yielded crushed marble for use in landscaping and aquarium s . In 1994 , the National Park Service 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 . According to Supernaugh , Yount is " credited with setting the standards for performance and service by which the public has come to judge the rangers of today " .