Wrigley Botanical Gardens

Wrigley Memorial from the front

The Wrigley Memorial & Botanic Garden is a botanic garden on Santa Catalina Island, California, operated by the Catalina Island Conservancy. It also contains a memorial to William Wrigley Jr.^[1]

Garden

The botanic garden covers 38 acres (154,000 m²) near the town of Avalon on Catalina, off the shore from Los Angeles, California, USA.^[2] The garden places a special emphasis on California island endemic plants, i.e., plants that grow naturally on one or more of the Channel Islands of California but nowhere else in the world.^[1]

Wrigley memorial

William Wrigley Jr. (1861–1932) bought most of Catalina Island in 1919 with proceeds from his chewing gum empire. When he died on January 26, 1932, at age 70, he was interred near his Catalina home, in a tower in the botanical gardens.^[3] The tower stands 130 feet high and is primarily built with local materials.^[4] Wrigley's body has been moved,^[1] but his original grave memorial marker still adorns the tower site.

See also

• List of botanical gardens in the United States

References

1. "A Catalina Oasis Offers the Mortal and the Vital: Rare plant life is nurtured alongside a memorial to the head of the Wrigley empire", Los Angeles Times, June 14, 2003.
2. Shirk, Martha (February 16, 1992), "Getting Away From It All On Santa Catalina Island", St. Louis Post-Dispatch.
3. "Wrigley Memorial Progressing", New York Times, April 19, 1934.
4. Purdum, Todd S. (May 2, 1999), "Weekend Getaways: A Touch of Capri Off Los Angeles", New York Times.

Additional reading

• Colbert, T. (1980), "The Wrigley Memorial Botanical Garden", Pacific Horticulture, 41 (2): 25–27.
• Strong, Kathy (2007), Off the Beaten Path: Southern California (7th ed.), Globe Pequot, pp. 88–89, ISBN 978-0-7627-4429-9.

External links

• official Wrigley Memorial & Botanic Garden website — Catalina Island Conservancy.

Coordinates: 33°19′44″N 118°20′26″W / 33.32889°N 118.34056°W