SPOKANE, Wash. — As the nation prays for President Jimmy Carter, KREM 2 is taking a look back at his connections to the Inland Northwest. We dusted off our archives from the late 70s and determined Carter made two trips to Eastern Washington during his presidency.
He made his first visit in 1978 for the four-year anniversary of the World's Fair. A crowd greeted the president at Fairchild Air Force Base before his motorcade took him downtown.
In front of a crowd of some 25,000 people, Carter dedicated the former Expo site as Riverfront Park. During the ceremony, he praised the people of Spokane for investing in this urban redevelopment of the site.
"You've transformed an area that was declining, that was far short of its great potential, into one of the nation's most innovative and refreshing urban settings," Carter said.
Later that day, Carter held a town hall event at the Spokane Convention Center. 1,7000 ticket holders greeted the president with a standing ovation.
Two years later, Mount St. Helens blew. This prompted Carter's second visit to Eastern Washington in 1980.
Two days after the eruption, President Carter declared a major disaster for the state of Washington. The next day, he stopped in Spokane on his tour of the Mount. St. Helens devastation. There, he would find the hillside where he dedicated Riverfront Park now covered in several inches of ash.
Two major regional events all tied to the life of an American president.
We also know Carter visited Eastern Washington a third time, but it was before he was elected president. During his speech at Riverfront Park in 1978, he recalled visiting Expo '74 in Spokane as the governor of Georgia. He remembered being "thrilled" by the beauty of the Spokane River.
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