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Placerita Canyon Nature Center Dedication | Martha Mitchell
Placerita Canyon State Park


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November 10, 1971 — Martha Mitchell (1918-1976), the famously outspoken wife of Nixon Attorney General John N. Mitchell, was the celebrity guest at the dedication of the Nature Study Center, aka Placerita Canyon Nature Center, at Placerita Canyon State and County Park.

Family life unraveled for the Mitchells soon afterward. Martha hounded the press when her husband's name was linked to the Watergate scandal, so much so that Nixon later told Robert Frost, "If it hadn't been for Martha Mitchell, there'd have been no Watergate." Martha and John divorced in 1973; in 1977 John went to prison, mainly for obstruction of justice (he served 19 months), but Martha didn't live to see it. A chronic alcoholic with advanced myeloma (a cancer of plasma cells in bone marrow), she died May 31, 1976, in New York.

See also: Photo Gallery: Placerita Canyon Nature Study Center Opening, with Guest Martha Mitchell, 11-10-1971.


LW2509: 19200 dpi jpeg from photograph (print) by Leon Worden.
PLACERITA NATURE CENTER DEDICATION 11-10-1971

• Origins of Placerita Canyon Nature Center Associates


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Photo Gallery: Grand Opening

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Plaque

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Ceremonial Key

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Martha Mitchell

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