Remembering Jimmy Carter’s trips to Idaho and his friendship with former Governor Cecil Andrus
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IDAHO FALLS – President-elect Jimmy Carter smiled as he addressed a cheering crowd.
It was around 4 a.m. on Nov. 3, 1976. The former governor of Georgia — who passed away on Dec. 29 at age 100 and was laid to rest in his hometown on Thursday — had secured a narrow victory against his Republican opponent, Gerald Ford. Carter had earned 51% of the popular vote and 297 electoral votes, according to voting records.
RELATED | Jimmy Carter, the 39th US president, has died at 100
The 54-year-old peanut farmer had visited Idaho twice in the last two years, including a campaign stop in Pocatello months earlier. His term as Georgia’s governor coincided with Idaho Governor Cecil Andrus’ first term in office. The two met in 1971 after their inaugurations, and that sparked the beginning of a decades-long friendship.
“Among all the governors in the nation, Cecil Andrus has probably been as close to me as any other,” Carter once said in an interview with KTVB.
Idaho’s U.S. Senator Frank Church had run against Carter in the Democratic primary. Carter considered him as a running mate before selecting Walter Mondale.
“Senator Church is a fine man as well,” Carter said. “For me to have a relationship with the people in Idaho … is important to me.”
Church later endorsed Carter, calling him “a candidate behind whom all Democrats can and should unite.”
“The scope and success (of his campaign) exhibit a stamina and self‐discipline, an assertion of will and a firmness of character which promise to make him a great President,” Church told the New York Times.
Carter’s campaign stop in Idaho had failed to win support from voters. Despite that, he had emerged victorious in the general election.
Carter was now two months away from being inaugurated as America’s 39th president as he stood before a crowd of supporters in Sacramento, California to deliver his victory speech.
“This tremendous crowd at four o’clock in the morning represents hundreds of millions of American people who are now ready to see our nation unified,” Carter said. “I pray that I can live up to your confidence and not disappoint you.”
During his administration, President Carter signed the Central Idaho Wilderness Act, which created the Frank Church Wilderness area. He also made other contributions that continue to have an impact in Idaho. Here’s a look at Carter’s connections with the Gem State.
Carter’s connections with Idaho
Carter’s connection with Idaho began with Cecil Andrus. Andrus’s granddaughter, Monica Church — who was elected in November as a state representative — tells EastIdahoNews.com the two first met at a governor’s conference in the White House around 1971.
“They sat at the same table,” Church says. “My mom (was there) and Jimmy Carter was on her left. She introduced herself and asked what he did. Though he was governor of Georgia at the time, he said he was a peanut farmer.”
The couple spent time together during the event and Church says Andrus and Carter hit it off. They shared a passion for fly fishing and the outdoors. Carter visited Idaho several times over the next decade.
KTVB reports Carter visited the Gem State three times during the 1970s. The first time was in 1974. The purpose of that trip, according to Church, was “a testing of the waters” for a potential presidential run.
Carter and her grandfather likely met briefly, though there is no record of that in Andrus’s personal writings, Church says.
Carter announced his presidential candidacy on Dec. 12, 1974 and made a campaign stop to Idaho in 1976.
“He brought his middle son with him, James Carter III. He went by Chip. Chip and my aunt actually went out on a date in downtown Boise while they were visiting. (The future president and Andrus) would have certainly talked about … issues related to the country that were near and dear to both of their hearts,” Church says.
Diane Bilyeu, a Pocatello woman who served in the State Senate from 1968 – 1970 and again from 2006 – 2012, remembers Carter making a speech in the city’s now-vanished Sweigert Park off the Portneuf River.
She shook his hand that day and got to meet him.
“I liked him very much,” Bilyeu says. “He was a real sincere, caring person.”
After being elected president, Carter created Friendship Force International, an organization devoted to creating friendships and “promoting peace” around the world. Bilyeu was the director of the organization in Idaho and interacted with several dignitaries overseas in this capacity, including Queen Elizabeth. She has fond memories of this experience and her interactions with President Carter.
Sometime in 1976, Carter selected Walter Mondale as his vice president. Idaho U.S. Senator Frank Church, who is also Monica’s grandfather, ran against him in the May primary and Carter initially eyed him for a running mate.
Though Carter and Church had a friendly association in political circles — both men left office the same year and Church was the namesake for the Central Idaho Wilderness Act — they didn’t have any personal interactions together.
When Carter was elected in 1976, he selected Andrus — who was in the third year of his second term as Idaho’s governor — as his secretary of interior. Monica says it was their friendship and similar interests in the outdoors that likely contributed to that.
In 1978, President Carter spent three days with Andrus in eastern Idaho for a float trip on the Middle Fork of the Salmon River. Monica says it all started with a meeting in Washington, D.C. They were having a conversation about public lands and Andrus suggested the president make a trip to see Idaho’s public lands.
“They all flew back on Air Force One to Idaho to float the Salmon River,” Monica recalls.
In 2023, Marc Johnson, Andrus’s former chief of staff, told KTVB Carter was one of the first presidents to take such a remote vacation and it made national headlines.
“Cecil and secret service flew in separately to Indian Creek in a little single engine plane,” says Monica.
During the trip, they enjoyed fly fishing off the back of a raft. Monica has pictures of the family playing frisbee with the president, eating and interacting together.
“It sounds like it was a pretty incredible trip,” she says.
Two years later, on July 23, 1980, Carter established the Frank Church — River of No Return Wilderness Area, which protected the Middle Fork of the Salmon River and much of the surrounding area.
‘The last time they saw each other’
Though Carter left office the following January, he and Andrus stayed in touch over the years. Around 2014, Monica taught at Boise High School. She and her students interacted with the former president during a virtual chat on the 50th anniversary of the Wilderness Act, which included the protections in central Idaho.
Andrus was standing in the back of the room that day, listening to his friend speak to numerous classrooms across the U.S.
“All of a sudden, the president stops. He leaned forward and said, ‘Is that Cec. Andrus?'” Monica recalls.
At that point, both men were decades removed from public office and hadn’t seen each other in a long time.
“The two of them talked for a minute with all of these students listening. President Carter was definitely choked up and then (told those on the call) none of this would’ve been possible (without Andrus),” Monica says. “It was the last time they saw each other.”
All these years later, Monica is still grappling with the fact that her grandpa was friends with a U.S. president.
Carter’s legacy continues to have an impact in Idaho, and she’s grateful for his contributions.
As she begins her journey of public service, she praises both Andrus’ and Carter’s example of hiring people in their administrations with the necessary skills for a specific purpose, and not for political reasons.
“He and Carter hired the best and the brightest,” she says. “The lesson anyone can take away (from their example) is to surround yourself with people who are smarter than you, who have deep thoughts and who can listen to those who have knowledge and experience.”