I have always been intrigued by what possibly could lie beyond the next hill. I suppose that is a primary reason I am a hunter. Surely hunters everywhere share this sentiment. Surely Harry Yount did. That’s him above.
In 1873 Harry, a Union Civil War veteran and former POW, signed on as hunter and guide for the Hayden Geological Survey that mapped Colorado. On July 27, 1874, he was photographed atop Berthoud Pass, doing what hunters do everywhere: wondering what could be “over there.” The moment was recorded on a glass plate negative by none other than William Henry Jackson, the famous photographer who, as part of Matthew Brady’s studio, documented the Civil War and later accompanied the Hayden surveys; his photographs are largely responsible for swaying Congress and the public to establish Yellowstone National Park and Colorado’s Rocky Mountain National Park, which lies north of Berthoud Pass.
They called the hunter “Rocky Mountain Harry” because he was a mountain man. In 1880 Carl Schurz, our nation’s first secretary of the Interior, appointed Harry as the first—and only—game ranger for Yellowstone National Park. In the park, alone, Yount patrolled for poachers and despoilers of the land long before there was a National Park Service or its rangers. Indeed, Horace Albright, the second director of the Park Service, called Harry Yount “the father of the park ranger service;” NPS history records him as “tough, rough, resourceful and intelligent.” During his service, Yount detailed his challenges protecting the land and its wildlife. The papers he left behind are today housed at the Yellowstone Heritage and Research Center, and ever since I learned of their existence they have called me to study them, to see what lay … in a hunter’s tales of yesteryear.
Rocky Mountain Harry Yount is part of our nation’s vaunted legacy of hunting—and he is just one story I want to present as part of our coverage of American hunters in observance of our nation’s semiquincentennial beginning on p. 30.
You know, some people today say our nation was founded by immigrants. I disagree: I say it was founded by settlers seeking freedom. Regardless, the fact remains that in its early days our nation was fed by hunters. Every one of us should take pride in our heritage. Happy Birthday, America!
--Scott Olmsted, Editor in Chief
NRA Hunter’s Code of Ethics
- I will consider myself an invited guest of the landowner, seeking his permission, and so conducting myself that I may be welcome in the future.
- I will obey the rules of safe gun handling, and will courteously but firmly insist that others who hunt with me do the same.
- I will obey all game laws and regulations and will insist that my companions do likewise.
- I will do my best to acquire those marksmanship skills which ensure clean, sportsmanlike kills. 5. I will support conservation efforts which can ensure good hunting for future generations of Americans.
- I will pass along to younger hunters the attitudes and skills essential to a true outdoor sportsman.
The editors welcome your letters. Mail them to:
Says You, American Hunter, 11250 Waples Mill Road, Fairfax, VA 22030-9400.
Or email us at [email protected]. Letters may be edited for the sake of brevity.
