On August 18, 1971, U.S. First Lady Pat Nixon visited the extreme southwest corner of the continental United States. She was there to inaugurate Border Field State Park, a 372-acre parcel of land in Imperial Beach, California. The site of the initial survey to mark the international borderline after the U.S.– Mexico War ended in 1848, it had been a U.S. Naval field since World War II. The park’s planners envisioned free access to it for people on both sides of the boundary (L. Thomas 1971).