One of the highlights of my life was the day President Jimmy Carter and his wife, Rosalyn, visited our family in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge. My sister, Kate, and I were camped on the Okpilak River in the foothills of the Brooks Range along with my two daughters, Robin and Casey, ages 4 and 1. I’ll never forget the whirring sound of their helicopter approaching our camp.
It was June, 1990, and the Carters were traveling with a camera crew from the Discovery Channel in the process of creating a documentary on President Carter’s life and legacy. Carter had recently read my book, Midnight Wilderness, and expressed interest to the producer that they stop by our camp for a visit. I was overwhelmed, at 39 having just finished my first book, to receive a call from the producer that the Carters might drop by for a visit!
We had camped for two weeks, wore dirty clothes, and our food supply was pretty bare bones. When the helicopter pilot radioed that they were about to land with an ice chest of lunch food I remember feeling relieved that the Carters would have something more decent to eat than peanut butter and pilot bread.
The Carters were down-to-earth, wonderful people. We had a great day talking about the Alaska Lands Act on the tundra, fishing at Okpilak Lake, and birdwatching along the river. Robin delighted in showing President Carter how to fish with her three-foot Mickey Mouse fishing pole. He sweetly pretended that this was his first time fishing, and later gave her a piggy-back ride.
When I asked him about the highlights of his presidency, he noted three important achievements. First and foremost, he took great pride in the passage of the Alaska National Interest Lands Conservation Act which set aside more than 100 million acres of national parks, wildlife refuges, wilderness areas and wild and scenic rivers. With the stroke of a pen, President Carter signed the most important lands conservation act in history. He was familiar with every boundary line of the Alaska designations, working closely in the oval office with Secretary Cecil Andrus. A lover of wilderness, President Carter wanted to protect Alaska’s most precious wild places for the great diversity of wildlife and for generations to come. He felt the Alaska Lands Act was the most important piece of legislation signed into law during his presidency––and it was!
He also took great pride in the Camp David Accords and the signing of a peace treaty between Egypt and Israel. Influenced by his mother Lilian, who served in the Peace Corps in India as a 68-year-old nurse, President Carter was a peacemaker and humanitarian when it came to foreign policy. Coupled with this peace treaty was the success that nobody went to war during his administration. How refreshing and significant to have a president who truly valued wilderness, the conservation of our resources, and diplomacy with the gift of peace as governing principles.
President Carter deeply loved Alaska. During his trip he witnessed the aggregation of 100,000 caribou on the coastal plain of the Arctic Refuge. Moved by this experience he said, “This is the closest thing America has to Africa’s Serengeti,” followed by a firm statement that “oil development can never happen here.”
On Oct. 1, President Carter turned 100. Happy 100th Birthday President Jimmy Carter, and many thanks from all that is wild in Alaska!
If you want to send him a card of thanks to help him celebrate his birthday, or make a donation to honor the work at the Carter Center, send it to:
President Jimmy Carter, The Carter Center
453 John Lewis Freedom Parkway NE
Atlanta, GA 30307-1406.
Featured Photo: Okpilak River with the Carters during their first trip to Arctic Refuge in 1990. (Photo courtesy of Debbie Miller)
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Debbie Miller is a writer, environmental advocate, and longtime member of the Northern Alaska Environmental Center. She lived and taught in Arctic Village between 1975-1977, on the south side of the Brooks Range. Her first wilderness adventure book, Midnight Wilderness (Sierra Club Books, 1990) describes the wonders and natural history of the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge based on 14 years of explorations. She was a co-founder of the Alaska Wilderness League with former director of the Northern Center, Mike Matz, and has served on the AWL board since 1992. She currently lives in Sitka, Alaska, where she can see the spouts of humpback whales out the living room window.