For the entire month of 1883 Farny was on the move. He’d been lucky enough to join President Henry Villard’s Northern Pacific Last Spike procession that transported four trains of guests and journalists (and a couple artists), totaling more than 300 people, from Europe and the East Coast, to the Last Spike event near Garrison, Montana. It was an ALL EXPENSES PAID event (travel, food, events), that some estimates put at a total cost of $200,000 (roughly tens of millions of dollars today). Nearly every city and town along the train’s path installed decorations, held banquets when the could, and celebrated the success of the northern transcontinental railroad. The reasons behind the huge procession are complex, too complex to describe here, but it’s a fascinating bit of history, an arguably unique event in the history of the US.
In short, I’ve been able to document that Farny traveled to the city of Bismarck, for the laying of the capitol’s cornerstone, which Farny sketched, and where he finally met Sitting Bull (and I have found Sitting Bull’s take on the meeting). The party then traveled west to Grey Cliff, Montana, where Farny sketched the Crows dancing that was published in Harper’s Weekly. From there, they went to the The Last Spike event, which Farny also sketched. Once the spike was laid, the party traveled all the way to Portland, where a huge event was held, followed by steamship rides down the Willamette River and to Astoria, before the part split and a group of about thirty journalists traveled north to Tacoma, where Farny took some photos. The group then took a steamship to Seattle (as the railway wasn’t complete), to Port Townsend, through the San Juan Islands, and to Victoria, B.C, the end of their journey.
On the return trip, the journalists traveled back to Portland, then took a steamship to the Dalles, before hopping on the train. They deviated from the transcontinental railroad by cutting off on the spur to Pendleton, Oregon. From there, they rode carriages, then a train, to Walla Walla, eventually reaching Dayton, Washington, then back to Walla Walla. From there, it was a quick trip back to Garrison, Montana, a quick side trip to Butte, Montana, then they headed back to St. Paul. There, Farny and Eugene V. Smalley, who headed up the journalist contingent of the Villard Party, spend a couple days in Minneapolis, documenting the papers mills in the area, a story with illustrations later published in The Century Magazine.
While on the trip, Farny was working for four different publishers, The Century Magazine, Harper’s Weekly, Frank Leslie’s Illustrated Magazine, and Weber Land und Meer, a German publication. I could track down no pics from Farny related to the trip in either The Century nor in the Weber Land und Meer (could not find archives of this newspaper), but there is one image that appeared in Harper’s and two in Leslies from the trip.
This image of the cornerstone laying in Bismarck on September 5 was published in Frank Leslie’s Illustrated Magazine, September 22, 1883, page 72:
This image showing the Last Spike on September 8 was published in Frank Leslie’s Illustrated Magazine, September 22, 1883, page 73:
Finally, I found the photograph from F.J. Haynes which I believe shows Farny standing on the far left, which can be found here https://www.mtmemory.org/nodes/view/74006:
Here is a closeup:
