Iva Botsford lived in Livingston, a town in southwest Montana that began as a railroad town on the Yellowstone River amid the local ranches.
Today, Livingston is a primary entrance to Yellowstone National Park.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Livingston,_Montana
We met Iva in an earlier postcard story; she received a charming postcard from her friend, Agnese, in Anaconda, Montana.
That earlier postcard, like this one, was adorned with floral blossoms and a rough verse in praise of the town – “The girls are pretty, the boys are fine”.
In October of 1909, Iva received a postcard from F. G.
This friend mailed the greeting from Bozeman, a city amid the mountains of southwest Montana.
The site of the future city was visited by William Clark during the Lewis & Clark expedition, in an area known to indigenous peoples as the “Valley of Flowers”.
Bozeman was named for a frontiersman who marked a branch of the Oregon Trail through the valley toward the future mining town of Virginia City.
The first cattle ranch was established in 1866, and this occupation spread throughout the area.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bozeman,_Montana
Livingston is about 26 miles east of Bozeman, and the towns were connected by the railroad.
The face of this postcard is adorned with a bough of lilac and a verse:
“Well, here I am in BOZEMAN MONT,
Enjoying its sights and cheer,
Everything’s great, and I’m feeling first rate,
But, O, how I wish you were here”
It seems that some enterprising publisher created stock cards that could be adapted to towns across Montana.
The publisher is not identified, but the lovely, embossed sprig of lilac was “Made in Germany”.
O the reverse is a printed message reminding Iva “of the letters you promised to write.”
The verse continues, expressing a hope that Iva will ‘drop me a line” and will “do so tonight.”
I’m glad that Iva preserved these examples of postcard art and civic pride.
One hopes that Iva fulfilled her epistolary duty, and that the friends maintained a correspondence for many years.
