A Day to Remember: Jimmy and Rosalynn Carter’s rendezvous with the Kenai National Wildlife Refuge

In January 2025, the nation mourned and remembered the life and legacy of former President Jimmy Carter, who passed away at age 100 in late December 2024, the longest-living former president. There were many shared stories and remembrances, but perhaps one more story is worth telling involving the Kenai National Wildlife Refuge, the Carters’ 2005 trip to Alaska, and a special wedding anniversary on the shores of Skilak Lake.

While few Alaskans know about the Carters’ 59th anniversary trip to the Kenai, many know about the former president’s historic conservation legacy and his long-running love affair with Alaska.

The Alaska Conservation Foundation invited former President Jimmy Carter to Anchorage for the 25th Anniversary Celebration of the Alaska National Interest Lands Conservation Act. At the time, Carter, who spoke at the celebration, was the honorary chair of the Foundation’s Board of Trustees.

The Carters were given several options for their extended stay following the ANILCA celebration. It is telling that the Carters chose an outdoor experience that so many ordinary Alaskans and visitors choose every year: fishing on the upper Kenai River within the Kenai Refuge and overnighting on the shores of Skilak Lake. During their Kenai Peninsula trip, the Carters also spent time boating on Resurrection and Aialik bays, the Chiswell Islands, and visiting Fox Island and Kenai Fjords National Park. It is also noteworthy that during their trip, the Carters would celebrate their 59th anniversary.

To the best of my knowledge and research, Mr. Carter was the first sitting or former United States president who ever visited the Kenai National Moose Range or Kenai NWR for any reason.

The Carters’ Kenai trip was guided by longtime Kenai refuge visitor services permit holder Kirk Hoessle, president and CEO (chief exploration officer) of Alaska Wildland Adventures (AWA). Hoessle was midway through his third decade providing visitor experiences on the Kenai NWR.

AWA also operated the Kenai Back Country Lodge at Cottonwood Creek, a remote venue located on a private inholding within the refuge’s Kenai Wilderness, where the Carters would repose following two days of fly-fishing on the upper Kenai River canyon. The small private inholding was originally a homesite that predated Franklin Roosevelt’s 1941 executive order establishing the Kenai National Moose Range. ANILCA expanded, renamed, and designated the surrounding land Wilderness in 1980.

Kirk Hoessle called me at the refuge office and gave me a “heads up” that the Carters would be fishing on the refuge and staying two nights at Skilak Lake. He knew it was not uncommon for me to patrol Skilak Lake by boat or refuge floatplane or to occasionally stop at the Cottonwood Creek Backcountry Lodge. I was excited about the call and the opportunity to meet his guests.

Coincidentally, I received a report of a long line of helicopter fire scoop buckets and rigging that had been accidentally released in Skilak Lake and needed to be located and recovered. The summer of 2005 had been dry and exceptionally warm, and the lightning-caused 7,200-plus-acre King County Creek wildfire was mostly out but still smoldering.

Type II fire crews, helitack crews and helicopters remained deployed in the area. Apparently, during fire suppression, they had inadvertently dropped a long line water bucket, and fire managers were hopeful that wave action would wash the expensive rigging to shore at some point.

It was fate — I had the perfect mission for the Skilak area and, with any luck, an opportunity to meet the former president.

I needed an observer for the Refuge Cessna 185 floatplane. Recently retired and former Denali National Park Chief Ranger Tom Griffiths was spending part of the summer on the Kenai and recently signed up as a refuge volunteer. He was a seasoned observer and was still current in his Alaska aviation passenger training.

Tom was a mentor and significantly influenced my decision to come to Alaska. I contacted Tom, and he agreed to be my observer in search of the fire bucket. “Oh, by the way, would you like to meet Jimmy Carter?” I can still recall his response — something akin to a kid at Christmas. I had never flown with him and was excited to have my mentor fly with me over the refuge.

So, later that afternoon, Tom and I departed Headquarters Lake. After a 45-minute flight from Soldotna along the south shore of Skilak, Tom spotted the washed-up orange bucket and cable where it had washed up south of the Kenai River inlet to the lake. After radioing the location to the Alaska Division of Forestry for a boat crew retrieval, we proceeded to Cottonwood Creek.

Kirk Hoessle met us at the Skilak beach in front of the AWA camp. The Carters were napping following the early morning fly-fishing trip down the Kenai River canyon — within a few minutes, President and Mrs. Carter joined us on the beach for a warm greeting.

The Carters were curious about us, the Cessna 185 floatplane, our task that day, and the refuge in general. They also inquired about Tom’s tenure at Denali National Park. We heard about their morning fly-fishing trip and how they were quite taken with the refuge, the Kenai River, and Skilak Lake, which on that day was as calm as a “Georgia mill pond” and quite inviting on such a windless and sunny July day. Rosalynn, by her telling, was just as avid a fly “fisherman” as her husband.

Jimmy Carter was kind, soft-spoken, and had a good sense of humor. He carried a well-worn bird field guide, and was planning a bird-watching trip in the afternoon. He seemed very curious, and our conversation explored refuge operations and the very warm summer we were experiencing. President Carter, who had visited many locations in Alaska over the years, seemed genuinely interested in the Kenai NWR and the opportunity to visit with two seasoned “rangers.” Mr. Carter seemed particularly knowledgeable of Alaska and conversationally as much a teacher as a student.

Our discussion turned to the recent King County fire and the warm summer. I noted that the Kenai Refuge had been experiencing more wildland fires and warmer conditions that fostered thunderstorms and lightning.

I mentioned that 30 years earlier, when I first came to the Kenai Peninsula, lightning and dry lightning, in particular, were significantly less frequent. We also discussed the related effects of several spruce bark beetle outbreaks and an expanding wildland fire mosaic on the Kenai.

As if on cue from some grand teaching assistant, Mr. Carter and I at once noticed a larger helicopter on the far north shoreline of Skilak Lake. It was dangling a long line fire bucket, and its distant engine/rotors were barely audible, if at all. The helicopter appeared headed in the direction of a previously unnoticed smoke rising from a ridge upslope and just east of Upper Skilak Campground.

While we watched, the helicopter made two water-dipping trips between the lake and the smoke, then departed east, presumably to the Soldotna heli-base. The helicopter was larger than those positioned locally and was probably still detailed to the King County Creek fire. I speculated to former President Carter that the small fire and smoke were possibly from the same lightning storm that ignited the recent larger wildland fire, finally smoldering to a cloud of visible smoke.

I smiled and noted that it was just more evidence of climate change we had been talking about. With his characteristic grin, Mr. Carter said, “You know not everyone believes in climate change.” I laughed and replied, “Well maybe they’ll come around, and there’s something that anyone can certainly understand … and that’s “bugs on a windshield.”

He puzzled at my joking remark, and I went on to explain that in the past few years as a refuge pilot, I had been experiencing increasingly frequent bug splatters and obscured aircraft windshields. I implied that warmer conditions facilitate more frequent and larger insect hatches, and my smeared windshields were the result.

Carter smiled and seemed to get a genuine laugh from my anecdotal climate change example. He said, “You know, I think I’ll use that in my next climate change talk.” I nodded approvingly and, for a brief moment, felt like a modern-day Mark Twain known for explaining consequential issues with folksy idioms.

In fact, on several flight occasions, it had been necessary to land and clean off the blurry bug splatters. I noted that the warmer conditions had certainly caused more frequent and larger insect hatches, and I had encountered bugs at altitude but more frequently during low-level flights.

I further remarked to Mr. Carter that just such a windshield event had occurred to a lesser degree on our flight that very day and that I would need to thoroughly clean the windshield with lake water before departing.

We visited for a few more minutes, shared a few laughs, took pictures, included windshield cleaning in the floatplane’s pre-departure checklist, and then went off. Tom and I were all smiles, having shared a great flight together and having been able to find a “bucket” and check off the day’s events from our “bucket list.”

While recently visiting Kirk Hoessle regarding this article, he pointed out that he had an additional experience with the Carters during their 2005 visit. The backcountry lodge has one of the most authentic handcrafted remote log saunas in Alaska, built by previous and then property owner Gary Titus, an expert log construction craftsman and a former refuge ranger who has been responsible for most of the historic log cabin restorations and new remote cabin construction on the Kenai NWR.

Kirk checked with the Carters’ security detail about using the sauna: “Yes, but just don’t let Mr. Carter go in the lake.” Kirk relayed the security details’ instructions, informing Mr. Carter of their “no-go” wish regarding the lake.

When it came time to finish up the sauna, Mr. Carter said, “I’m pulling rank on those instructions,” … and so the 80-plus-year-old former President did something that only a brave few Alaskans do (80 years old or otherwise) and that is to take a dip in the 50F glacial waters of Skilak Lake.

Author Rick Johnston was a ranger/pilot on Kenai National Wildlife Refuge from 1979-2012 and is retired and a resident of the Kenai Peninsula.