Jimmy Carter, 100, the Humble Outdoorsman from Plains, Ga.

James Earl Carter, Jr., the 39th President of the United States, and a kind, gentle outdoorsman from Plains, Ga., passed away Sunday, Dec. 29, at the age of 100.

Carter, who had been in hospice care for nearly two years before his death, wasn’t just a former world leader, he was also a dedicated outdoorsman. Hunting, fishing and fly fishing near his Georgia home through the years, Carter also explored the outdoors in many other parts of the world.

He often traveled with his wife Rosalynn, who died at the age of 96 on Nov. 19, 2023. The Carters were married for 77 years and the former First Lady—also widely known as the First Lady of Plains, where she lived and is now buried within sight of the couple’s home—often traveled with and shared in Jimmy’s outdoors adventures.

Known around the world as Jimmy, Carter began his rise to fame by narrowly defeating President Gerald Ford in the 1976 presidential election, and served one term in the Oval Office. As Ford had to wade the difficult times after the Vietnam War, the Watergate scandal, and President Richard Nixon’s resignation from the White House, Carter had his own challenges during a tumultuous time in American history. In his four years in office, Carter faced the Iran hostage crisis, a crippling energy crisis, rampant inflation, and a host of other foreign and domestic issues.

A devoted public servant with a deep Christian faith that he often said guided him throughout his life, Carter grew up on the northern edge of the Peach State’s fabled bobwhite quail country. A man of firm convictions, Carter was a soft spoken and humble man who rose from the Georgia dirt to the heights of power, but never forgot his roots. For years he taught Sunday School class at his hometown Maranatha Baptist Church.

While many other presidents have been hunters, anglers and outdoors enthusiasts, Carter may have topped them all—fishing, fly fishing, upland bird hunting, waterfowl hunting, turkey hunting, snow skiing, whitewater rafting, camping and bird watching along the way.

The Launch of a Politician

Carter got his start in politics after returning home from submarine service in the U.S. Navy. Active in the civil rights movement and Democrat Party politics, Carter threw his hat into the electoral ring, winning office and serving as a Georgia state senator from 1963 to 1967, and as Georgia’s 76th governor from 1971 to 1975.

While in Georgia politics, his lifelong commitment to natural resources and wildlife conservation began to show fruit with the founding of The Georgia Conservancy in 1967, reorganizing the Peach State's state government and creating the Georgia Department of Natural Resources in 1972, and establishing the Georgia Heritage Land Trust to purchase and preserve unique lands in the state thanks to the Heritage Act of 1975.

One of Cater’s biggest environmental accomplishments as governor of Georgia came in 1973 when he vetoed the construction of a dam on the Flint River at Sprewell Bluff. To this day, the National Park Service webpage on Carter noted that the Flint River remains unimpeded in its flow for over 200 miles and is only one of 40 such rivers in the U.S. able to make that claim.

When Carter went to Washington as president, his four years in the White House saw his administration achieve some notable successes on the U.S. and world stage, including the 1978 Camp David Accords, a bilateral peace treaty between Israel and Egypt, bringing a framework of peace to the Middle East. His administration continued talks on Strategic Arms Limitation with the Soviet Union, too, along with creating the United States Department of Energy and the Department of Education.

But Carter's administration was also embroiled by a troubled economy at home and political controversy during his four-year term. On the second day of his presidency, he angered many when he pardoned all draft evaders for the Vietnam War. Deregulation issues and a controversial multi-million-dollar bailout of the Chrysler Corporation also fueled angst against Carter. There was also a national energy crisis in 1979, the Three Mile Island nuclear accident, a grain embargo against the USSR after its invasion of Afghanistan, and ultimately, a U.S. Olympic team boycott of the 1980 Summer Olympic Games in Moscow.

The biggest blow to Carter's presidency was most likely the hostage crisis that began on Nov. 4, 1979, when a group of militant Iranian students took over the U.S. Embassy in Tehran, holding 52 Americans hostage in a riveting worldwide drama where Carter initially pledged no military action by the U.S. that would result in bloodshed and retribution against the hostages. In April 1980, a covert military operation known as Operation Eagle Claw sought to free the U.S. hostages, but failed dramatically and resulted in the loss of two helicopters and the deaths of eight U.S. service members. The crisis, which brought great angst to the American people, lasted 444 days.

Faced with difficult relations with Congress, an economy soured by inflation, and other domestic issues, Carter lost the presidential election in landslide fashion to Ronald Reagan in the fall of 1980. The crisis ended with the hostages being freed immediately after Reagan succeeded Carter as president.

Humble Beginnings

In many ways, Carter’s rise to residency at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue in Washington, D.C. was the epitome of the American dream, one where anyone can rise from humble beginnings and achieve much in life, including becoming president.

Born on Oct. 1, 1924 to James Earl Carter, Sr. and his wife Bessie Lillian, Carter graduated from Plains High School as an 11th-grader (the school did not have 12 grades) in 1941. Afterwards, he started undergraduate studies in engineering at Georgia Southwestern College in Americus, Ga., before transferring to Georgia Tech in Atlanta the following year. In 1943, and during the middle of World War II, Carter earned admission into the U.S. Naval Academy, fulfilling a lifelong dream.

Graduating from the Naval Academy post-war in 1947, Carter had Naval posts in Virginia, Hawaii, Connecticut, New York and California, and was associated with the Navy's new nuclear submarine program. Eventually, Carter would leave the Navy and take over the family peanut business back home after gaining a release from service when his father died of pancreatic cancer in 1953.

Carter's rise to worldwide fame began through that peanut business, one that early on was floundering and required the Carters to take out several lines of credit from the bank and live in public housing. But eventually, Carter and Rosalyn—who managed the company's books—managed to keep the farm afloat and eventually became successful as peanut farmers. That paved the way toward Carter's public service career, first in the Georgia Senate, then in the Peach State's Governor's Mansion, and eventually, the White House.

While Carter’s presidency and political career isn’t considered near the top of the list by many historians, his post-presidential life made him one of the world’s most beloved figures. Diplomacy was a big part of Carter's post-White House years, as was humanitarian work through Habitat for Humanity, improving health in poorer nations around the world, and helping in relief fundraising efforts following hurricanes Katrina (2005), Sandy (2012), Harvey (2017) and Irma (2017). He has also taught at Emory University for nearly four decades and in 2002, won a Nobel Peace Prize for the Carter Center's work of promoting and expanding human rights.

Jimmy Carter, the Outdoorsman

The 39th U.S. President was also a man who loved the great outdoors, regularly participating in hunting and fishing activities in his home state, around the remainder of the U.S., and even far-flung parts of the world. Like many sitting presidents, Carter's time in the outdoors during his time in office was limited by the demands of the world stage and the tasks that he found himself doing.

While in the Oval Office, Carter signed into law a number of important pieces of legislation, commissioned The Global 2000 Report, created the Chattahoochee River National Recreation Area which protected a 48-mile stretch of the Georgia stream, signed the Endangered Wilderness Act of 1978 that designated 10 new wilderness areas on National Forest lands of the American West, signed the Alaska National Interest Lands Conservation Act which protected more than 100 million acres of land in Alaska. That latter legislation included the creation of 13 national parks, 16 national wildlife refuges, two national forests, two national monuments, two conservation areas, and 26 wild and scenic rivers.

Once the burden of leading the nation was put behind him, Carter resumed his busy outdoors lifestyle personally, using his time and experiences afield to write an outdoors memoir in 1988 entitled An Outdoor Journal: Adventures and Reflections.

In addition to several books authored, Carter penned many stories for Game & Fish’s sister publication, Fly Fisherman. One of those included memories of his 1999 trip to southern Argentina and the famed big sea-run brown trout of the Tierra del Fuego region.  Another recounted his 2013 trip to Mongolia to fly fish for taimen along with his wife Rosalynn, a story that Carter told in a 2014 Fly Fisherman tale entitled "Tackling Taimen: Hunting the World's Largest Salmonid."

Protecting and conserving the outdoors in its various forms was very much on the mind of Carter during his White House years and beyond. In addition to time spent fishing and hunting, Carter worked tirelessly to help protect more than 157 million acres of land, helped create numerous state and historic sites, and helped create some National Parks land that has proven critical in several endangered species recovery battles.

Carter, who was an avid birdwatcher with Rosalynn, also created the Rosalynn Carter Butterfly Trail, supported an effort known as Operation Migration to use ultralight aircraft to teach captive bred birds to migrate, and even oversaw the construction of a 3,800-panel solar farm in 2017 that powers nearly half of his hometown of Plains.

While in the State House and White House, Carter was often taking political positions that weren't popular at the moment but are revered today in the conservation world.

One of those involved Alaska. The Jimmy Carter Presidential Library noted in 2022 that Carter's expansion of conserving federal lands in Alaska through the National Interest Lands Conservation Act was the largest singular expansion of protected lands in U.S. history. With much of that in Alaska, The New York Times wrote in 2000 that "(President Carter's) legacy is larger than that of anyone since the man who bought Alaska from Russia for 2 cents an acre."

Carter was a man of the people, but also a man of creation too. In 2016, the National Park Service concurred, bestowing the award and title of Honorary National Park Ranger, the highest civilian honor awarded by the NPS and one reserved for individuals who have made exceptional contributions to the National Park System.

In the end, Carter can be described as a humble man of God, a loving husband and father, a consummate public servant, and someone who dared to make a difference in the world, never forgetting who he was or where he came from.

Farewell Jimmy Carter, rest in peace. And thanks for the difference that you made during your life, in the outdoors world and beyond. May we all endeavor to do the same.

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