"The Bells of Camulos, the old home of Ramona, near Santa Barbara, Cal." Penny postcard (foreign 2 cents), M. Rieder of Los Angeles (and Dresden, Germany), No. 4194, 1909. (This example is postally unused but we've seen a 1909 cancellation on another example of the same postcard.)

We don't usually think of the area 10 miles west of Valencia as being "near Santa Barbara," but if you're in Germany, where this postcard was made, maybe it is. The card was issued in the early 1900s when the Del Valle family (which owned the ranch until ~1924) and the Southern Pacific Railroad were trying to attract tourists by promoting Camulos as the Home of Ramona and linking it to California's "old Spanish days." Saying "Santa Barbara" would evoke that image — although the Santa Barbara we know today bears little resemblance to Santa Barbara prior to the 1925 earthquake. Santa Barbara had been a town much like any other, with wooden, Western-style buildings. After the earthquake flattened them, the town fathers made a concerted effort to go Mission Revival in order to create an indentity for the town that would appeal to the same breed of tourists who sought out the legendary Home of Ramona.

Ironically, long before anyone thought of issuing this postcard — even before the "Ramona" novel was written — Camulos was part of Santa Barbara County. Santa Barbara was one of California's original 27 counties at statehood in 1850. Ventura County split off in 1873. "Ramona" was written in 1884.