Memories with President Carter in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge
See the original story in the Fairbanks Daily News-Miner here.
Memories with President Carter in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge
By Debbie S. Miller
In the spring of 1990, I finished my first book, “Midnight Wilderness: Journeys in Alaska’s Arctic National Wildlife Refuge,” based on 14 years of wilderness adventures in our greatest wildlife refuge. I was a 38-year old mother with two young daughters.
You can imagine my surprise when I received a phone call in Fairbanks from a documentary producer in Atlanta who told me that President Carter had read my book and wanted to meet me during his upcoming June trip to Alaska. The filmmakers planned to create documentary about Carter’s life that would include a segment on Alaska and Carter’s leadership in the passage of the 1980 Alaska National Interest Lands Conservation Act (ANILCA), or the Alaska Lands Act.
“Really?! He’s read my book?” I asked in disbelief.
In addition to writing more than 30 books of his own, my favorite being “Hour Before Daybreak,” Carter was a voracious reader, passionate to learn details about any subject of interest. He clearly cherished the unique wildness of Alaska along with the more than 100 million acres of public lands and waters protected under the Alaska Lands Act. The Arctic Refuge was a place on the map that Carter wanted to experience.
President Carter, first lady Roselynn Carter and the film crew wanted to come to the Arctic Refuge and wondered if I might be camping there. As it turned out, we had planned a trip that summer with my sister and daughters, camping on the Okpilak River near the base of Mount Michelson, a glaciated mountain that I once climbed and became spellbound by the forever views of the Brooks Range, coastal plain and Beaufort Sea.
After camping for ten days, there was no certainty that the Carters would arrive until we heard the helicopter coming. Nervous that we didn’t have any fresh food to serve, the pilot called on the air-to-ground radio announcing that the Carters had brought lunch in a big cooler full of fresh fruit and country-fried chicken.
Soon we were all sitting on the tundra sharing stories. The two Secret Service members commented that it was a much easier job to be in the Arctic Refuge. They just had to watch for bears. My 4-year old daughter, Robin, showed President Carter how to fish with her two-foot long Mickey Mouse pole. Carter cheerfully went along with the lesson pretending he had never fished. The Carters were gracious, down-to-earth and lovely people. What an honor to spend time with them in the wilderness of the Arctic Refuge.
During our visit, I asked President Carter about the highlights of his administration. In terms of domestic policy, he said enthusiastically that he was most proud of the passage of the Alaska Lands Act, the largest expansion of conservation lands and waters in U.S. history. This single act doubled the size
President Jimmy Carter spends time with Debbie Miller’s daughters, Casey, then age 1, and Robin, then age 4, during Carter’s 1990 visit to Alaska.
COURTESY DEBBIE S. MILLER
