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Attorney General’s Family Goes Camping in Washington’s Olympic National Park

Aug. 10, 1962 - Mrs. Ethel Kennedy fell in a creek, and the park superintendent was thrown from a horse, but otherwise everyone was having a fine time at the Kennedy-Douglas camp in Washington’s Olympic National Park. The vacationing Attorney General and Associate Justice William O. Douglas (right) and their party were “roughing it” at a camp that has been called “The Olympic Hilton.” Justice Douglas, Mr. Kennedy, and their wives and party, including four Kennedy children, went 11 miles today. They camped at Elkhorn, on the Elwha River, in the Olympic Park area often called “The Last Frontier.” The camp included such civilized details as a 40-foot mess tent, warming stoves in individual tents, and portable lavatories. Justice Douglas and Mr. Kennedy hiked into Elkhorn. The start was marred when John Doerr, Olympic Park superintendent, fell from a horse and broke his collarbone. Later, disdaining a wide footbridge, most of the group tried to cross a swift creek on a broken, slippery log. That was where Mr. Kennedy’s wife, Ethel, fell in. She was not injured.

© 2024 by Joe Rubenstein

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