Presidential visits to Alaska pick up post-statehood: From JFK campaigning to Obama in the Arctic

Part of a continuing weekly series on local history by local historian David Reamer. Have a question about Anchorage history or an idea for a future article? Go to the form at the bottom of this story.

Before statehood, only two sitting presidents had visited Alaska. Warren G. Harding toured several Alaska cities during his Voyage of Understanding in 1923, doomed because he died in San Francisco on his way back to the capital. And in 1944, Franklin D. Roosevelt inspected military bases at Adak and Kodiak while also managing to get in several hours of fishing.

Presidents had at least one good reason for not visiting Alaska before statehood: Residents could not vote for president. That changed with statehood, and coincidentally or not, the frequency of presidential visits increased dramatically. After statehood, Alaska became, if not a regular stop, then at least something for each administration to check off the to-do list.

In recognition of a newly empowered electorate, then-Sen. John F. Kennedy visited Alaska in November 1958, campaigning in Ketchikan, Juneau, Anchorage and Fairbanks on behalf of the Democrats vying to become Alaska’s first senators. Young, charismatic, photogenic, connected and with a sparkling war record, Kennedy was already a celebrity, more than a year before he officially began his 1960 presidential campaign. Both of his endorsed candidates, E.L. “Bob” Bartlett and Ernest Gruening, were elected.

In 1960, Dwight Eisenhower became the first sitting president to visit the state of Alaska. He previously toured Alaska military facilities in 1947 as chief of staff of the Army. With no more elections to worry about, he basked in the appreciative glow of a war hero who signed Alaska into statehood, forgetting for the moment his long-term hesitancy regarding Alaska’s viability as a state.

On June 12, 1960, he landed at Elmendorf Air Force Base. More than anything, he seemed struck by the changes wrought upon Alaska over the previous century. His father had been alive during the Russian occupation of Alaska, and an uncle had taken part in the Klondike Gold Rush. The president noted in his prepared remarks, “Today, flying here through five time zones, across almost thirty-five hundred miles, at little less than the speed of sound, over fertile fields and prosperous cities, this trip is an index to North American growth in my own lifetime.”

An estimated 30,000 to 35,000 onlookers crowded downtown Anchorage for the subsequent parade, roughly 40% more than the greater Anchorage population. More distant city streets became eerily quiet. One clever local hung a 20-foot banner that declared, “We Welcome U-2 Alaska.” The sign referenced an international incident earlier that year when an American U-2 jet was shot down over Soviet airspace. Eisenhower stayed the night and left early the next morning to continue his trip around the Pacific Rim.

[Part 1: The history of presidential visits to Alaska, starting with Warren G. Harding’s ill-fated ‘Voyage of Understanding’]

Kennedy returned to Alaska in 1960, this time campaigning for himself. On Sept. 3, he spoke in Anchorage at the Edgewater Motel. The Edgewater opened in 1956, and the building is still standing, though its uses have changed dramatically over the years. In the early 1970s, it was a bar, the Country City, known for its boxing matches. By the middle of the 1970s, and for many years after, it housed the Alaska Laborers Training School. Today, it is Re:Made, an upcycled goods store.

In his speech, Kennedy emphasized the Democrats’ history with Alaska, noting, “There is a special tradition for Democratic administrations in Alaska. Woodrow Wilson founding the Alaskan railroad and the City of Anchorage. F.D.R. founding the Matanuska Valley settlement, Ladd Field and a stable gold market. Harry Truman founding the Eklutna power project and a host of others.”

That same day, Kennedy gave a speech in Palmer at the state fair. As he spoke at the racetrack grandstand, some Alaskans passed out anti-Catholic fliers in the crowd. His rise to political and cultural prominence had reignited longstanding prejudices. Many Americans believed that a Catholic president would be beholden to the pope and thus split by competing loyalties. Kennedy was only the second Catholic presidential candidate after Al Smith’s unsuccessful 1928 campaign against Herbert Hoover.

In October 1960, after Kennedy’s visit but before the election, the Alaska Baptist Convention claimed there was a Catholic conspiracy to infiltrate the political ranks and thus dominate American Protestants. The convention passed a resolution “opposing any candidate for the high office of President of the United States who is affiliated with such a purpose and conquest as is the Roman Catholic Church.” In a televised address to Texas ministers, Kennedy said, “I am not the Catholic candidate for president. I am the Democratic Party’s candidate for president who happens to also be a Catholic.”

Kennedy’s Republican opponent, Vice President Richard Nixon, had also visited Alaska in 1958 and returned in 1960. He spent just over two hours in Anchorage on Nov. 7, 1960, part of a whirlwind conclusion to his campaign on the last day before the election. The visibly exhausted candidate spoke at the Anchorage High School, now West High. One attendee brought a pair of cymbals and clashed them together to emphasize his favorite parts of the speech. Another resident presented Nixon’s wife, Pat, with a necklace of faux snowballs, the best the city could offer in a still snowless season.

Kennedy, of course, won that election. Excluding Joe Biden’s still-incomplete term, Kennedy was the last president not to visit Alaska during his time in office, though tragedy obviously limited his opportunities.

His successor, Lyndon B. Johnson, had toured Dutch Harbor while still a congressman, soon after Japanese forces raided it in 1942. As president, he made a brief visit to Alaska on his way home from Japan in 1966. Shortly before midnight on Nov. 2, Air Force One touched down at Elmendorf. He spent the night at the Westward Hotel, today the downtown Hilton Anchorage. His motorcade from Elmendorf to the hotel became an impromptu parade, surrounded by a crowd despite the late hour and falling sleet. By 8:30 the following morning, he was back in the air.

The most interesting details on his brief visit come from his diary. Alaska Gov. Bill Egan, Rep. Ralph Rivers, Sen. Ernest Gruening and Sen. Bob Bartlett asked for and received signed photos of the president. Johnson was also jealous of political rival Robert F. Kennedy’s publicity and hoped the Alaska visit would more or less push Kennedy off the front page. During a nightcap at the Westward, the president told his aides, “We’ve got to get some local color on this Alaska arrival.”

Nixon followed Johnson as president and made his Alaska return when he landed at Elmendorf on Sept. 26, 1971. More than Harding’s 1923 tour, this visit was the most historic, though not because of Nixon’s presence. At the Air Force base, he met Emperor Hirohito and Empress Kōjun of Japan, the first instance a Japanese emperor had stepped onto foreign soil.

After Nixon resigned in 1974, he was replaced by Gerald Ford, who made two visits to Alaska. On Nov. 17, 1974, he stopped at Elmendorf to refuel. A year later, on Nov. 29, 1975, he toured Eielson Air Force Base and a section of the trans-Alaska pipeline.

Jimmy Carter likewise visited twice. On June 23, 1979, he attended a reception at Elmendorf, a brief break on an international trip. His second visit was more interesting, at least for the president.

Late on July 9, 1980, Carter arrived at Elmendorf. Early the following day, a Marine helicopter flew him and a party including Secretary of State Edmund Muskie and Alaska Gov. Jay Hammond on a combination sightseeing and fishing trip. They flew around Denali, observed Dall sheep on steep mountainsides, and landed on a glacier for a quick look around. Then they took off for Clarence Lake and some grayling fishing.

Per his hunting and fishing memoir, “An Outdoor Journal,” Carter described himself as a “novice fly tier” but on this day proudly displayed his latest creation to “more experienced anglers.” He tried “several small Alaska patterns without success” until he switched to his design, an imitation caterpillar he called Irresistible. Then he “began to catch fish regularly.” The group kept enough of their catch for a lakeshore lunch.

Carter was back at Elmendorf around 1 p.m. The excursion, though short, reinspired his support for the Alaska National Interest Lands Conservation Act, which was finally signed into law that December. He wrote, “I was thrilled by the stark, spectacular beauty. During this summer, passage of the Alaska lands legislation was still in doubt, but this brief trip renewed my determination to succeed.”

On Jan. 16, 1983, Ronald Reagan made a fleeting stop at Elmendorf. His visit the next year was more substantial. On May 1, 1984, he landed in Fairbanks after a trip to China. At a luncheon that day, he primarily spoke about China but sprinkled in several comments on Alaska’s “frontier spirit” and “strategic role.” He also toured the University of Alaska Fairbanks. At a Patty Center ceremony, he was gifted a UAF sweatshirt. Video of the event offers the rare opportunity to see UAF mascot Nanook shake hands with a sitting president and first lady.

Ronald and Nancy spent the night at Sen. Frank Murkowski’s home. On May 2, the president met Pope John Paul II at Fairbanks International Airport, the pope’s second visit to Alaska after a 1981 stop and mass in Anchorage.

Among the presidential visitors to Alaska, George H.W. Bush’s stay was one of the shortest. He landed at Elmendorf at 9 a.m. Feb. 22, 1989. For an hour and a half, he enjoyed the finest of Alaska’s hangars, enough time for a speech and to refuel the plane.

Bill Clinton’s Nov. 11, 1994, visit to Anchorage included speeches at Elmendorf and the Anchorage Museum. Most memorable, however, was likely the unscheduled stop to pick up reindeer stew at governor-to-be Tony Knowles’ Downtown Deli. It was the president’s first visit to Alaska, but first lady Hillary Clinton had spent the summer of 1969 washing dishes and working on a slime line at Denali National Park and in Valdez respectively.

In stark contrast to his father, George W. Bush spent by far the most time in Alaska of any person elected president. Bush not only visited as president three times — Feb. 16, 2002; Nov. 14, 2005; and Aug. 4, 2008 — but he had lived in Alaska for several months in 1974. He spent the summer working in the offices of Alaska International Air, which evolved into MarkAir. He even voted in that year’s Republican primary — not that he could later recall for whom he voted. This less publicized period of his life came to light in the runup to the 2000 election when some Republican fliers in Alaska referred to him as “a former Alaska resident.”

Most Alaskans likely well remember the most recent presidential visits to the state. Like Ford, Carter and Reagan, Barack Obama made a quick stop at Elmendorf, on Nov. 13, 2009, before returning for a more significant visit. From Aug. 31 to Sept. 2, 2015, Obama visited Anchorage, Seward, Dillingham and Kotzebue, the latter stop making him the first sitting president to visit the Arctic Circle. Lastly, Donald Trump made three quick refueling stops at Elmendorf, all in 2019, on Feb. 28, May 25 and June 26.

Joe Biden has yet to visit Alaska, but the past 70 years suggest it will happen sooner or later.

Key sources:

Carter, Jimmy. An Outdoor Journal: Adventures and Reflections. Fayetteville: University of Arkansas Press, 1994.

Cole, Dermot. “Since Harding in 1923, Presidential Stops Have Brought the Unexpected and Memorable.” Anchorage Daily News, August 28, 2015, adn.com/we-alaskans/article/presidential-journeys-alaska-and-lesser-momemts-history/2015/08/29/.

Dunham, Mike. “Obama to be 10th Sitting President to Visit.” Alaska Dispatch News, July 18, 2015, A-10.

Eisenhower, Dwight D. Remarks Upon Arrival at Elmendorf Air Force Base, Anchorage, Alaska, June 12, 1960. American Presidency Project, University of California Santa Barbara, presidency.ucsb.edu/documents/remarks-upon-arrival-elmendorf-air-force-base-anchorage-alaska.

“Ike Gets Huge Reception.” Anchorage Daily Times, June 13, 1960, 1, 7, 10.

Johnson, Lyndon B. President’s Daily Diary, November 2, 1966. Lyndon B. Johnson Presidential Library, lbjlibrary.net/assets/lbj_tools/daily_diary/pdf/1966/19661102.pdf.

Jones, Stan. “Clinton Visits Anchorage.” Anchorage Daily News, November 12, 1994, A-1, A-10.

Kennedy, John F. Address to the Houston Ministers Conference, September 12, 1960. John F. Kennedy Presidential Library, jfklibrary.org/learn/about-jfk/historic-speeches/address-to-the-greater-houston-ministerial-association.

Kiffer, Dave. “When JFK Came to Ketchikan.” Sitka News, October 30, 2020, sitnews.us/Kiffer/JFK/103020_jfk_ketchikan.html.

“Nixon Pledges Strong Defenses.” Anchorage Daily Times, November 7, 1960, 1, 11.

Ortega, Bob. “Alaska Loves George.” Anchorage Times, February 23, 1989, A-1, A-8.

Thomas, Jo. “The 2000 Campaign: The Texas Governor; The Missing Chapter in the Bush Bio: A Modest Summer in Alaska.” New York Times, October 21, 2000, A-12.