The Discovery of Yellowstone Park

Nathaniel Pitt Langford (1832-1911) also known as "National Park" Langford was the first superintendent of Yellowstone National Park and was a member of the 1870 Washburn-Langford- Doane Expedition to explore the park. He published The Discovery of Yellowstone Park: Journal of the Washburn Expedition to the Yellowstone and Firehole Rivers in the Year 1870 in 1905. Langford was an advocate to preserve the Yellowstone region. There was no money available to offer him a salary for this new position, so he had to make his living elsewhere. This left Langford with little time to run the park, and he entered it only twice during his five years as superintendent. Langford had no funding for the park and no legal way to enforce protection for its wildlife and geologic features. Political pressure, which took the guise of accusing Langford of neglect, forced the removal of Yellowstone's first superintendent in 1877.