James Boutelle relocated to northern California in the 1850s, and lived with his sister, Susan Boutell Messenger Sterling, in Arcata.

In memory of Harry Boutelle, his name was applied to a place in Macabebe Province, a Boston Harbor steamer of the Quartermaster's Department, and a still-extant battery near the Presidio of San Francisco.

On February 12, 1866, he reenlisted as a private in the regular Army, and was sent, via Panama, to the West to join the First Cavalry's Company F. By November 1866 Boutelle was at Fort Boise, Idaho, at the beginning of Crook's Winter Campaign.

Most of 1872 was spent in the Klamath region where he was active in the Modoc War and, in a scuffle with Scarface Charley, precipitated a Battle of Lost River that subsequently gained him a brevet promotion and a citation for distinguished service.

Boutelle supported the conservation of bison, advocated stocking streams to maintain fish populations, insisted that travelers use established campgrounds, and developed a system for rapid and effective response to fires, which at that point were primarily caused by park visitors.

I hope through him to see all of these waters so stocked that the pleasure-seeker in the Park can enjoy fine fishing within a few rods of any hotel or camp.This suggestion was acted upon and in 1889 the first non-native fish were stocked into Yellowstone waters, a practice that continued until 1955 and helped create the angling experience Yellowstone National Park is renowned for.

1889 was a particularly bad year for fires in the region, and Boutelle's demands for more resources for firefighting, supported by conservationist George Bird Grinnell, caused Secretary of the Interior John Willock Noble to dismiss him from the superintendent's post on February 14, 1891.

He returned to service with the 1st Cavalry's Company K. Boutelle retired from the Army a second time on August 27, 1895, but immediately took up work with the Washington National Guard.

Boutelle developed a streamlined reporting system, among other efficiencies, and coped with a Sand Island incursion of armed Oregon fishermen.

(Six cyanotypes related to the Sand Island incident are tipped into Boutelle's copy of the Sixth Biennial Report of the Adjutant-General of the State of Washington for the years 1895 and 1896.)