Carvings

Last week, I talked about an 1898 carving.  Here it is (above).  When I mentioned it to someone else, that person said something like, "So you think."  Well.  It is true that the date might be false.  Which is to say that a) the carver was mistaken; or, b) that the carver was lying.  But why?  W.B. Mecham was probably not lying about wandering around the Markagunt 120 years ago, and I doubt he was illiterate.  You can judge for yourself, I guess.  Directly across from the Mecham carving was this figure (below).  Often old carvings like this are of females—and they are sometimes somewhat crude.  It is difficult to tell in this case, but it could be.