Archives West Finding Aid

Jack E. Haynes was born in Fargo, N.D on September 27, 1884, to photographer F. Jay Haynes and Lily Snyder Haynes. He was the youngest of three children. Jack Haynes succeeded his father the family photography business eventually taking ownership of the Haynes Yellowstone National Park businesses in 1915.

Jack E. Haynes began working in his family's photography business in St. Paul, MN at a young age and joined his father for summers in Yellowstone starting in 1897. In 1905, he began managing the family's Upper Basin studio between spring and fall college terms. An accomplished musician, Haynes organized a dance band that played in St. Paul, an activity which helped finance his education. After graduating from the University of Minnesota in 1908 with a degree in mining engineering Haynes became a full-time employee and photographer, gradually being given more management responsibility. In 1910 his turned over editorial control of the Haynes Guides, his popular Yellowstone guidebook to Jack who transformed the book from a descriptive travel narrative into a true guidebook of sites and features. For fifty years Jack Haynes carried editorial responsibility for what became Yellowstone's most popular guidebook, the Haynes Guide. He painstakingly measured road distances, made corrections to mountain elevations and drew all maps himself, a project which occupied him each fall until 1962.

The arrangement as his father's unofficial partner in F. Jay Haynes (his father's photography firm) lasted until after the reorganization of the senior Haynes's increasingly lucrative Monida and Yellowstone Stage Company at the end of 1913. Turning his attention to concentrate on managing the successor to the Monida and Yellowstone Stage Company, the Yellowstone-Western Stage Company, Jay in 1914 gave the Park photographic business entirely into Jack's hands. With two seasons of practical apprenticeship behind him, in 1915 F. Jay Haynes formally asked the Interior Department to transfer his photographic concession to Jack E. Haynes. While "F. Jay Haynes" still operated through 1916, the business decisions and management were Jack's completely. In the concluding months of 1916 National Park Service director Stephen Mather mandated a total restructure of Yellowstone concessions.

Upon F. Jay Haynes's death in 1921, Jack inherited the Haynes studio business outside of Yellowstone, together with his father's archive of negatives shot over forty years of photography across the northern United States. Haynes was awarded sole right to produce pictorial souvenirs and formally bought out his father's interests in the Yellowstone photography business, a right not finally settled between the concessioners until 1930.

Jack Haynes married his first wife, Margaret Larkin, on May 24, 1909. Little is known about the marriage other than the date of divorce in late March, 1930. Haynes married Isabel Nauerth on April 10, 1930. Isabel had been a former employee of the Yellowstone Park Hotel Company and for three years the manager of Roosevelt Lodge. In 1931 the couple had their only child, Lida Marie Haynes. Lida and three friends were killed in an automobile accident in 1952 south of Livingston, Montana.

An outgrowth of his work revising his own guidebook, Jack Haynes was popularly known in the Park as "Mr. Yellowstone." He served as the first director of the Yellowstone Library and Museum Association, sat as a founding member of the Yellowstone Park Council, and was involved in many decisions affecting the park's administrative or concession operations. In the 1920s and 1930s Haynes became a publisher, releasing works on centering around Yellowstone under his imprint including books on Yellowstone plants, several editions of a work of fiction by Emmerson Hough, and a classic exploration narrative. He was active in associations of national park concessioners and outdoor recreation organizations, was an ardent advocate of natural resource conservation, and an active Republican, Mason, and member of Bozeman's Rotary Club. Jack managed the Haynes business, conducted research, and worked on his Yellowstone chronology until his death of heart failure in March, 1962, at which time Isabel took over the family business.

From 1884 through 1915 F. Jay Haynes conducted a service industry in Yellowstone National Park making and selling souvenir photographs, taking pictures of tour parties, and publishing graphic souvenirs such as postcards and souvenir viewbooks. In 1916 National Park Service director Stephen Mather mandated the reorganization of concessions in YNP from licensed competitors into regulated monopolies. F. Jay Haynes was instructed to retire from all business in the Park, to dispose of his Yellowstone-Western Stage Company (the photo concession had been transferred to Jack the previous year), and sell his remaining interests in the photographic business to son Jack and in the various Yellowstone camping companies. Jack bought out F. Jay Haynes's photography business in Yellowstone at the turn of 1917. Jack followed his father's pattern and operated the concession and Saint Paul studios under the name "J.E. Haynes."

In 1924 Jack and wife Margaret Haynes reincorporated "J.E. Haynes" under Minnesota laws with the name Haynes Picture Shops. The well-known stores operated in Yellowstone until Isabel sold the entire concern to Hamilton Stores in 1968. In 1937 Haynes created Haynes Inc. to oversee the company's publishing and manage the retail outlets, which retained the Haynes Picture Shops name. Haynes operated under this arrangement until 1945 when the base of operations moved from Saint Paul to Bozeman, Montana, and the incorporation was transferred west. A result of a concession negotiation, in 1949 Jack and Isabel drew daughter Lida into the business when they incorporated Haynes Studios Inc., a move that would allow the family to conduct business outside Yellowstone National Park without compromising their park concession. Until the late 1950s the Haynes maintained a photo printing plant in Saint Paul, Minnesota (which also served annually as the employee recruiting station); the Haynes's offices in Bozeman, Montana, took care of printing and publishing orders for Haynes's souvenirs and guidebooks and served as a seasonal warehouse location. The Haynes Picture Shops in Yellowstone bought their stock through Haynes Inc. from the Haynes Studios.

The physical facilities at the time Jack assumed his father's business consisted of the studio at Mammoth Hot Springs (which included a developing and printing plant as well as serving as the in-Park office), the Log Cabin Studio in Upper Basin, and hotel stands at Mammoth, Canyon, and Lake. F. Jay Haynes had added film developing to his Park business in 1911 to meet the needs of amateur photographers. After World War II the nature of tourism again changed and average time spent in the park decreased. In-Park developing became less significant and Jack dropped the service in 1948. To compete with other concessioners in the park in 1935 Jack constructed a general store at Tower Falls upon the site of the old Yellowstone-Western Stage Co. lunch station, which stood in use until 1959 when it was replaced with the building standing today. The Log Cabin Studio was disassembled from its site in front of Old Faithful Inn and moved behind the Inn in 1932 to operate as a photo developing and printing plant and a new store was built for Haynes. A shop in the main Lodge building at Canyon Village was opened in 1960 when the Canyon Hotel shop and the small free-standing shop was closed in 1959. Haynes also operated a shop, one of their largest, at Fishing Bridge. At the peak of its activity 21 Haynes Picture Shops' locations served the Yellowstone tourist.

After Jack Haynes passed away in 1962 company guidance was assumed by his widow Isabel Haynes. She carried the business for five more years and then sold the entire Haynes concern and assets to Hamilton Stores.