Harry W. Child
Encyclopedia
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.
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.
The Yellowstone Park Transportation Company had an exclusive agreement with the Northern Pacific Railway
to transport arriving railroad passengers into the park. The railroad owned a majority interest in the Yellowstone Park Association, which ran the majority of the in-park Yellowstone hotel concessions. After the railroad's minority partners and managers in the YPA left the company, Child, Huntley and Bach bought the YPA in 1898 with financing from the railroad. Child became president of the company. Huntley died and Bach suffered political scandal. Bach and Huntley's stock reverted to the Northern Pacific, but Child bought enough of the stock to own half the business by 1905, and in 1907 bought the remainder from the Northern Pacific, which sought to divest itself of the company after the Northern Securities
scandal. Again, the Northern Pacific provided financing of the purchase. In 1909 Child reorganized the company, dissolving the YPA and creating the Yellowstone Park Hotel Company, with himself as president, his son Huntley as treasurer and his son-in-law William Nichols as secretary.
Child aggressively expanded the hotel concession. At the turn of the century, the Upper Geyser Basin, the largest concentration of geysers in the world and home of Old Faithful
, was a half-day's ride from the nearest hotel. Child obtained permission to build a hotel at the Upper Geyser Basin. He had met Robert Reamer
, a young architect from San Diego, while both wintered in La Jolla, California. Child set Reamer to design and construct the Old Faithful Inn
in 1903, which became an iconic example of rustic log construction. At about the same time Child and Reamer expanded the Lake Hotel and another hotel at the Yellowstone Canyon
. The same year, Child accompanied Theodore Roosevelt
on his grand tour of Yellowstone. Child would also accompany Warren Harding in 1923, Calvin Coolidge
in 1927, and future president Herbert Hoover
in 1928. Child also conducted the King of Sweden through the park, receiving a knighthood in return.
In 1905, the Interstate Commerce Commission
ruled against Child and the Northern Pacific in an unfair trade practices dispute with William Wylie, operator of several tent camps in Yellowstone. Thwarted in his attempt to drive Wylie out of business, Child recruited investors to buy out Wylie, while Child remained in the background. The newly acquired company kept the Wylie name and was incorporated as the Wylie Permanent Camping Company. With improvements to services mandated by Child, the camping business expanded rapidly.
Reamer, by now a close family friend, accompanied Harry and Adelaide Child on a European tour in 1909. The next year he designed a new Canyon Hotel
for Child, built on a scale far greater than any previous park building. The Canyon Hotel quickly became the premier hotel in the park. In 1911 Child added the Yellowstone Park Boat Company to his portfolio, offering excursions on Yellowstone Lake
. However, Child gave up a portion of his share of the Wylie Permanent Campiing Company to friend and competitor F. Jay Haynes, who operated photography concessions in the park, and who held the Union Pacific Railroad
's hotel concession in the park. Until this time the Union Pacific concession was largely theoretical, but with the extension of rail service to West Yellowstone, Montana
, the UP and Haynes became a threat to Child's core business. The sale effectively bought Haynes' cooperation as a competitor.
, Child developed Green Meadow Ranch. Child bought the property in 1887 on behalf of investors that included executives of the Northern Pacific Railroad, selling it at a substantial markup to the St. Paul and Helena Land and Improvement Company. In 1914 Child bought back the property, by then a poultry-raising venture, and brought in Reamer to design an enormous Swiss Chalet-style house, barn, blacksmith shop and granary complex. The house burned in 1924, and the barn in 1956. The granary and blacksmith shop remain, and are the object of preservation efforts.
Child also developed Oro Fino Terrace, a complex of six three-story units under one roof at 802-812 North Benton Avenue, designed by Saint Paul architect Ralph Edgerton. Built in 1887, Oro Fino Terrace burned in 1985.
In 1913 Child and partner Charles Anceney established the Flying D Ranch, covering 80000 acres (32,374.9 ha) in Madison
and Galltin
counties. By 1920 the ranch comprised 100000 acres (40,468.6 ha) and leased another 400000 acres (161,874.4 ha).
. Child used the railroads' resources to borrow money for a fleet of custom-built White Motor Company
touring buses and touring cars. Child closed the Fountain Hotel, which was no longer needed as a relay point.
Child suffered bouts of ill health beginning in 1916, the result of diabetes and other problems. Mather and assistant Horace Albright were concerned about the future of the Yellowstone concessions should Child die, since his Child's son Huntley so angered Mather in 1916 that he was no longer permitted to conduct business with the Park Service. Child suffered financial difficulties in 1917 as a result of the decline in tourism that accompanied the United States' entry into World War I, but emerged healthy enough to consider re-absorbing the Wylie camping concession when it became available in 1918, which had suffered more heavily in the downturn. However, former Wylie employee Howard Hays arranged to purchase the concession with Park Service approval, renaming it the Yellowstone Park Camp Company in 1919. But by 1924, with Hays in ill health, Child bought the Yellowstone Park Camps Company , renaming it the Yellowstone Park Lodge and Camps Company, effectively cementing a monopoly of the major Yellowstone concessions.
Child died in 1931 at his winter home in La Jolla, California.
Montana
Montana is a state in the Western United States. The western third of Montana contains numerous mountain ranges. Smaller, "island ranges" are found in the central third of the state, for a total of 77 named ranges of the Rocky Mountains. This geographical fact is reflected in the state's name,...
. 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
Yellowstone National Park
Yellowstone National Park, established by the U.S. Congress and signed into law by President Ulysses S. Grant on March 1, 1872, is a national park located primarily in the U.S. state of Wyoming, although it also extends into Montana and Idaho...
from 1892 to 1980. Child was, with park superintendent and National Park Service
National Park Service
The National Park Service is the U.S. federal agency that manages all national parks, many national monuments, and other conservation and historical properties with various title designations...
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.
Early life
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, MontanaHelena, Montana
Helena is the capital city of the U.S. state of Montana and the county seat of Lewis and Clark County. The 2010 census put the population at 28,180. The local daily newspaper is the Independent Record. The Helena Brewers minor league baseball and Helena Bighorns minor league hockey team call the...
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.
J. & W. Seligman & Co.
J. & W. Seligman & Co., founded in 1846, was a prominent U.S. investment bank c. 1860s–1920s until the divestiture of its investment banking arm in the aftermath of the Glass–Steagall Act. The firm was involved in the financing of several major U.S. railroads in the 1870s and the construction of...
. Somewhat later, Child successfully managed the construction of a smelter in Great Falls
Great Falls, Montana
Great Falls is a city in and the county seat of Cascade County, Montana, United States. The population was 58,505 at the 2010 census. It is the principal city of the Great Falls, Montana Metropolitan Statistical Area, which encompasses all of Cascade County...
. 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.
Yellowstone Park Company
Northern Pacific Railway
The Northern Pacific Railway was a railway that operated in the west along the Canadian border of the United States. Construction began in 1870 and the main line opened all the way from the Great Lakes to the Pacific when former president Ulysses S. Grant drove in the final "golden spike" in...
to transport arriving railroad passengers into the park. The railroad owned a majority interest in the Yellowstone Park Association, which ran the majority of the in-park Yellowstone hotel concessions. After the railroad's minority partners and managers in the YPA left the company, Child, Huntley and Bach bought the YPA in 1898 with financing from the railroad. Child became president of the company. Huntley died and Bach suffered political scandal. Bach and Huntley's stock reverted to the Northern Pacific, but Child bought enough of the stock to own half the business by 1905, and in 1907 bought the remainder from the Northern Pacific, which sought to divest itself of the company after the Northern Securities
Northern Securities Company
The Northern Securities Company was an important United States railroad trust formed in 1902 by E. H. Harriman, James J. Hill, J.P. Morgan, J. D. Rockefeller, and their associates. The company controlled the Northern Pacific Railway, Great Northern Railway, Chicago, Burlington and Quincy Railroad,...
scandal. Again, the Northern Pacific provided financing of the purchase. In 1909 Child reorganized the company, dissolving the YPA and creating the Yellowstone Park Hotel Company, with himself as president, his son Huntley as treasurer and his son-in-law William Nichols as secretary.
Old Faithful Geyser
Old Faithful is a cone geyser located in Wyoming, in Yellowstone National Park in the United States. Old Faithful was named in 1870 during the Washburn-Langford-Doane Expedition and was the first geyser in the park to receive a name...
, was a half-day's ride from the nearest hotel. Child obtained permission to build a hotel at the Upper Geyser Basin. He had met Robert Reamer
Robert Reamer
Robert Reamer was an American architect, most noted for the Old Faithful Inn in Yellowstone National Park. Reamer was born in and spent his early life in Oberlin, Ohio. He left home at the age of thirteen and went to work in an architect's office in Detroit as a draftsman...
, a young architect from San Diego, while both wintered in La Jolla, California. Child set Reamer to design and construct the Old Faithful Inn
Old Faithful Inn
-Sources:*Barringer, Mark Daniel. Selling Yellowstone: Capitalism and the Construction of Nature, Lawrence, Kansas: University Press of Kansas, 2002. ISBN 978-070061167-3...
in 1903, which became an iconic example of rustic log construction. At about the same time Child and Reamer expanded the Lake Hotel and another hotel at the Yellowstone Canyon
Grand Canyon of the Yellowstone
The Grand Canyon of the Yellowstone is the first large canyon on the Yellowstone River downstream from Yellowstone Falls in Yellowstone National Park...
. The same year, Child accompanied Theodore Roosevelt
Theodore Roosevelt
Theodore "Teddy" Roosevelt was the 26th President of the United States . He is noted for his exuberant personality, range of interests and achievements, and his leadership of the Progressive Movement, as well as his "cowboy" persona and robust masculinity...
on his grand tour of Yellowstone. Child would also accompany Warren Harding in 1923, Calvin Coolidge
Calvin Coolidge
John Calvin Coolidge, Jr. was the 30th President of the United States . A Republican lawyer from Vermont, Coolidge worked his way up the ladder of Massachusetts state politics, eventually becoming governor of that state...
in 1927, and future president Herbert Hoover
Herbert Hoover
Herbert Clark Hoover was the 31st President of the United States . Hoover was originally a professional mining engineer and author. As the United States Secretary of Commerce in the 1920s under Presidents Warren Harding and Calvin Coolidge, he promoted partnerships between government and business...
in 1928. Child also conducted the King of Sweden through the park, receiving a knighthood in return.
In 1905, the Interstate Commerce Commission
Interstate Commerce Commission
The Interstate Commerce Commission was a regulatory body in the United States created by the Interstate Commerce Act of 1887. The agency's original purpose was to regulate railroads to ensure fair rates, to eliminate rate discrimination, and to regulate other aspects of common carriers, including...
ruled against Child and the Northern Pacific in an unfair trade practices dispute with William Wylie, operator of several tent camps in Yellowstone. Thwarted in his attempt to drive Wylie out of business, Child recruited investors to buy out Wylie, while Child remained in the background. The newly acquired company kept the Wylie name and was incorporated as the Wylie Permanent Camping Company. With improvements to services mandated by Child, the camping business expanded rapidly.
Reamer, by now a close family friend, accompanied Harry and Adelaide Child on a European tour in 1909. The next year he designed a new Canyon Hotel
Canyon Hotel
The Canyon Hotel was built in Yellowstone National Park in 1910 by the Yellowstone Park Company to accommodate visitors to the area of the Grand Canyon of the Yellowstone and Yellowstone Falls. The hotel was built on a huge scale, with a perimeter measurement of one mile. Situated on a hill to the...
for Child, built on a scale far greater than any previous park building. The Canyon Hotel quickly became the premier hotel in the park. In 1911 Child added the Yellowstone Park Boat Company to his portfolio, offering excursions on Yellowstone Lake
Yellowstone Lake
Yellowstone Lake is the largest body of water in Yellowstone National Park, The lake is 7,732 feet above sea level and covers with 110 miles of shoreline. While the average depth of the lake is 139 feet its deepest spot is at least 390 feet...
. However, Child gave up a portion of his share of the Wylie Permanent Campiing Company to friend and competitor F. Jay Haynes, who operated photography concessions in the park, and who held the Union Pacific Railroad
Union Pacific Railroad
The Union Pacific Railroad , headquartered in Omaha, Nebraska, is the largest railroad network in the United States. James R. Young is president, CEO and Chairman....
's hotel concession in the park. Until this time the Union Pacific concession was largely theoretical, but with the extension of rail service to West Yellowstone, Montana
West Yellowstone, Montana
West Yellowstone is a town in Gallatin County, Montana, adjacent to Yellowstone National Park. The population was 1,177 at the 2000 census. The town is served by Yellowstone Airport...
, the UP and Haynes became a threat to Child's core business. The sale effectively bought Haynes' cooperation as a competitor.
Other ventures
In Helena, MontanaHelena, Montana
Helena is the capital city of the U.S. state of Montana and the county seat of Lewis and Clark County. The 2010 census put the population at 28,180. The local daily newspaper is the Independent Record. The Helena Brewers minor league baseball and Helena Bighorns minor league hockey team call the...
, Child developed Green Meadow Ranch. Child bought the property in 1887 on behalf of investors that included executives of the Northern Pacific Railroad, selling it at a substantial markup to the St. Paul and Helena Land and Improvement Company. In 1914 Child bought back the property, by then a poultry-raising venture, and brought in Reamer to design an enormous Swiss Chalet-style house, barn, blacksmith shop and granary complex. The house burned in 1924, and the barn in 1956. The granary and blacksmith shop remain, and are the object of preservation efforts.
Child also developed Oro Fino Terrace, a complex of six three-story units under one roof at 802-812 North Benton Avenue, designed by Saint Paul architect Ralph Edgerton. Built in 1887, Oro Fino Terrace burned in 1985.
In 1913 Child and partner Charles Anceney established the Flying D Ranch, covering 80000 acres (32,374.9 ha) in Madison
Madison County, Montana
-National protected areas:*Beaverhead National Forest *Deerlodge National Forest *Gallatin National Forest -Demographics:As of the census of 2000, there were 6,851 people, 2,956 households, and 1,921 families residing in the county. The population density was 2 people per square mile...
and Galltin
Gallatin County, Montana
-National protected areas:* Gallatin National Forest * Yellowstone National Park -Demographics:As of the census of 2000, there were 67,831 people, 26,323 households, and 16,188 families residing in the county. The population density was 26 people per square mile . There were 29,489 housing units...
counties. By 1920 the ranch comprised 100000 acres (40,468.6 ha) and leased another 400000 acres (161,874.4 ha).
Automobile tourism
Automobiles remained banned in Yellowstone long after they were admitted in other national parks, due to the influence of Child and the Northern Pacific. In 1916, as part of an effort to exert Park Service control over concessioners, Park Service director Stephen Mather dictated a settlement between Yellowstone concessioners that sold all of Haynes' interests apart from his photography business to Child, while Child gave up his interest in the Wylie camping operation to a new organization, in return for the park's motorized transportation concession. As a result of this deal, Child became the beneficiary of three railroads: the Northern Pacific, the Union Pacific, and the BurlingtonBurlington Northern Railroad
The Burlington Northern Railroad was a United States-based railroad company formed from a merger of four major U.S. railroads. Burlington Northern operated between 1970 and 1996....
. Child used the railroads' resources to borrow money for a fleet of custom-built White Motor Company
White Motor Company
White Motor Company was an American automobile and truck manufacturer from 1900 until 1980. The company also produced bicycles, roller skates, automatic lathes, and sewing machines. Before World War II, the company was based in Cleveland, Ohio.-History:...
touring buses and touring cars. Child closed the Fountain Hotel, which was no longer needed as a relay point.
Child suffered bouts of ill health beginning in 1916, the result of diabetes and other problems. Mather and assistant Horace Albright were concerned about the future of the Yellowstone concessions should Child die, since his Child's son Huntley so angered Mather in 1916 that he was no longer permitted to conduct business with the Park Service. Child suffered financial difficulties in 1917 as a result of the decline in tourism that accompanied the United States' entry into World War I, but emerged healthy enough to consider re-absorbing the Wylie camping concession when it became available in 1918, which had suffered more heavily in the downturn. However, former Wylie employee Howard Hays arranged to purchase the concession with Park Service approval, renaming it the Yellowstone Park Camp Company in 1919. But by 1924, with Hays in ill health, Child bought the Yellowstone Park Camps Company , renaming it the Yellowstone Park Lodge and Camps Company, effectively cementing a monopoly of the major Yellowstone concessions.
Marriage and descendents
Harry Child married Adelaide Dean in 1883. Their children included Huntley Child, who managed the Yellowstone Park Hotel Company during his father's illness in 1916, angering Stephen Mather, which resulted in his expulsion from the company by his father. Daughter Ellen Child Nichols married William Nichols, who started as secretary to his father-in-law in 1907 and became president of the Yellowstone Park Company at Child's death in 1931. Ellen became chairman of the company in 1963 and was treasurer in 1965, selling the Yellowstone Park Company to Goldfield Enterprises in 1966.Child died in 1931 at his winter home in La Jolla, California.
Sources
- Barringer, Mark Daniel. Selling Yellowstone: Capitalism and the Construction of Nature, Lawrence, Kansas: University Press of Kansas, 2002. ISBN 978-070061167-3
- Haines, Aubrey L. The Yellowstone Story: A History of Our First National Park, Niwot, Colorado: University Press of Colorado, 1996. ISBN 978-070061167-3
- Quinn, Ruth. Weaver of Dreams: The Life and Architecture of Robert C. Reamer, Gardiner, Montana: Leslie & Ruth Quinn, 2004. ISBN 0-87081+391-9