A backcountry encampment by the Robert F. Kennedy and William O. Douglas families at Elkhorn in Olympic National Park came exactly 50 years ago this month.
The PDN’s daily feature, Peninsula Lookback, has been excerpting historical vignettes of the trip from the pages of the Port Angeles Evening News.
In 2009, the PDN, with photos courtesy of National Park Service archives, reprised the visit. That page is reproduced here.
Attorney General Kennedy was assassinated in 1968.
Supreme Court Justice Douglas died in 1975.
Ethel Kennedy, shown in one of the photos, is now 84.
Robert F. Kennedy Jr., shown with one of his river catches, is now 58, and in addition to his environmental-law practice hosts a syndicated radio show called “Ring of Fire.”