Harry 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 game warden in Yellowstone National Park.

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.

Their grandson, Harry's paternal grandfather, Jacob A Yount, moved to present day Missouri with several other families shortly after the Louisiana Purchase.

Ernest Ingersoll wrote that he was born in Susquehanna County, Pennsylvania,[3] 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,[4] and Thomas J. Bryant, who interviewed Yount in the latter years of his life and who speculated that 1837 was his birth date in an article published in the Annals of Wyoming, journal of the Wyoming State Historical Society.

[2] 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.

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.

As a captive, he was marched more than 90 miles (140 km) 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.

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.

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.

[3] 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.

"[3] 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.

[5] 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.

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.

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.

[8] 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.

[2] 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.

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.

[10] He recommended: The appointment of a small, active, reliable police force, to receive regular pay during the spring and summer at least, when animals are likely to be slaughtered by tourists and mountaineers.

[10]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.

[11] 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.

[12] In this report, he resigned his position "to resume private enterprises now requiring my personal attention," and concluded with a clear recommendation: I do not think that any one man appointed by the honorable Secretary, and specifically designated as a gamekeeper, is what is needed or can prove effective for certain necessary purposes, but a small and reliable police force of men, employed when needed, during good behavior, and dischargeable for cause by the superintendent of the park, is what is really the most practicable way of seeing that the game is protected from wanton slaughter, the forests from careless use of fire, and the enforcement of all the other laws, rules, and regulations for the protection and improvement of the park.