Mattie Messer lived in Painted Post, a village within the town of Erwin in Steuben County of south-central New York State.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Painted_Post,_New_York

This area, west of the modern city of Corning, was home to the Seneca people.

The “painted post” was an undecorated post raised to the memory of a noted Seneca chieftain – and the place was visited by members of the indigenous “Six Nations”.

Early European settlers painted the post and took it as the name of their settlement.

An illustrated history of the town is linKed here:

https://corningarchitecture.com/corning-architecture-blog/lost-architecture-of-painted-post-ny

In March of 1908 Mattie received a postcard from Bill.

The postcard was mailed from Santa Cruz, the city and county seat of Santa Cruz County in west-central California.

Santa Cruz was established as a mission on the northern end of Monterey Bay in 1791.

The Mexican secularization of the missions, and the conquest of California by the United States left Santa Cruz as a charter city in the new State of California.

The completion of the South Pacific Coast Railroad in 1880 and the construction of the Santa Cruz Beach Boardwalk in 1904 led to rapid development of the city as a seaside resort.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Santa_Cruz,_California

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The face of the postcard is a photograph of the three-masted vessel, “The Balboa”.

Also pictured is the smaller launch or landing craft, “Sinaloa”.

Santa Cruz newspaper stories (now behind a paywall) refer to the “cruise ship” “Balboa” which took passengers on an excursion around Monterey Bay.

The “Sinaloa” transported passengers to the “Balboa” as the water was too shallow (“mud flats”) to dock the larger ship.

The postcard was published by Edward H. Mitchell of San Francisco and printed in the United States.

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On the reverse, Bill does not begin the message with a greeting.

Thus, it is not clear how he might be connected to Mattie.

He first writes, “Sunday noon” – the time of his composition.

We learn that Bill  “Spent the morning on the beach.”

This afternoon, Bill will be “heading up the coast”.

We don’t know if the tour has a purpose beyond recreation, nor how long Bill expects to be traveling.

One hopes that he enjoys his trip, that he returns safely to his home, and that he sends additional postcards to Mattie.