Joaquin Miller wrote a story called “Lost on the Plains” for the October 1884 issue of St. Nicholas Magazine. The story included two paintings by Farny. The first painting that appears in the story has content and a design that harkens to a little know Farny painting that I thought was interesting, so I will cover that one last.
First, here’s the second of the two illustrations that appear in the story. It depicts the protagonists trying to find their way on the plains, but encountering troublesome prairie dog holes. Farny saw many of these holes during his trek across the plains in 1883 with the Villard Party on the Northern Pacific Last Spike adventure (several reporters on the trip mentioned the large swaths of prairie dogs on the prairie).
The next picture is the first one that appears in the story. It shows an unreadable sign amongst a funeral pyre and grazing buffalo:
Now, compare the above image to the below painting, featured on page 200 of Denny Carter’s book. It wouldn’t surprise me if the sign in the above picture had the same writing “Unknone Whites 7”, which is also the name of the undated painting. My guess is that, like the illustration, the painting dates to around 1884. Unfortunately, I can find no clearer illustration to learn just what the sign above says.
