Nathaniel P. Langford

Nathaniel P. Langford
1870 Portrait of Nathaniel P. Langford
Born	1832 (1832) New York City
Died	1911 (1912) Minnesota
Occupation	Park superintendent, Vigilante, Historian

Nathaniel Pitt Langford (1832–1911) was an explorer, businessman, bureaucrat, vigilante and historian from Saint Paul, Minnesota who played an important role in the early years of the Montana gold fields, territorial government and the creation of Yellowstone National Park.

Langford was born in Upstate New York and moved to Saint Paul in 1854. He worked as a banker was involved with the investment of the Saint Anthony Park neighborhood.

On June 16, 1862 Langford, as a member and officer of the Northern Overland Expedition, commanded by Captain James L. Fisk, left Saint Paul to establish a wagon road to the Salmon river mine regions of the Rocky Mountains via Fort Benton. The expedition ended up at the Grasshopper Creek gold fields in the area soon to be named Bannack, Montana. There Langford and his fellow businessmen established freight companies, a saw mill and other businesses.

Langford was also part of the vigilante movement, the infamous Montana Vigilantes, that dealt with lawlessness in Virginia City and Bannack, Montana during 1863-64.

In 1890, Langford wrote Vigilante Days and Ways to chronicle the era of pioneer justice in the American Old West.

In 1864, shortly after the Montana Territory was established on May 28, 1864, Langford was appointed Collector of Internal Revenue and National Bank Examiner, positions he held for five years in the Montana Territorial government.

Langford was a member of the 1870 Washburn–Langford–Doane Expedition which explored portions of the region that soon would become the Yellowstone National Park.Mount Langford, 10,623 feet (3,238 m) in the Absaroka Range, 7.5 miles (12.1 km) east of Yellowstone Lake, was scaled by Langford and Doane during the expedition and named after him.