Chew On This

There’s a fun little botanical garden just on the edge of Avalon; the garden is laid out before a memorial to William Wrigley Jr.—chewing gum magnate and owner of the Chicago Cubs, he basically owned the island during the 20’s and 30’s and was responsible for developing it. 

As a bonus, we got into the garden/memorial for free! Funny thing about military discounts, the further you get from bases, the more likely it is that they will be offered.

                           
I’m not sure what I expected, something more tropical maybe, but this was probably 70% cactus garden.  It was interesting though; I had no idea that prickly pear could, under the right conditions, develop into something resembling a tree.


The textures were lots of fun to look at.

                      
Wrigley did a number of interesting things when he developed the island.  In addition to establishing the infrastructure for the tourism trade, he wanted to make sure that the inhabitants had employment to sustain them through the off-season, so he built a factory for the production of glazed tile out of local clay and minerals.  This tile is quite prominent throughout the town and lends a unique color and character to the architecture that I really appreciated.

                  
Wrigley died in the early 30s and was originally buried here (his body was moved during WWII); his son took over the company and the island.  Once it was determined that the island was economically stable and self-sustaining, it was turned over to the Catalina Island Conservancy which still owns and maintains 90% of the island as an undeveloped nature preserve.

I’m not sure the kids appreciated the Wrigley’s history of good stewardship, but they did find his memorial to be an excellent place to stop and have a snack!


            
After having a bit of fun on the way back through the gardens, we arrive at the gate just in time to catch the trolley back into town.