PIKE COUNTY, Mo. — He was in town for just 57 minutes. But since it had been more than seven decades since the nation’s top politician had visited Pike County, it was a joyous hour.
President Jimmy Carter spent his 1979 vacation aboard the Delta Queen on the Mississippi River. One of the stops was Clarksville on Aug. 23.
It was the next-to-last day of a weeklong trip that had started Aug. 17 in Minneapolis. Although presidential candidates had visited over the years, the only sitting commander-in-chief to stop in Pike County had been Teddy Roosevelt, who spoke in Louisiana on April 29, 1903.
Carter’s journey came at a critical time. The nation was in a deep recession, there were long lines at gasoline pumps, interest rates were high and trouble was brewing in Iran.
Just five weeks earlier, Carter had given what became known as his “Crisis of Confidence” speech. In it, he addressed the sluggish economy and bloated federal bureaucracy, urging Americans to be more positive and self-assured.
Response initially was good, but then a shakeup in Carter’s cabinet led to the public questioning whether the man who had brokered a Mideast peace agreement a year earlier could effectively lead the country.
While some saw the riverboat trip as a political junket for the President’s 1980 re-election bid and others viewed it as an escape from the country’s troubles, most of the thousands who turned out to see him did not care about motive.
It was true that Carter visited largely friendly territory. In 1976, he had won three of the five states — including Missouri — the Queen would pass through. Carter beat Republican Gerald Ford, who had taken office after the resignation of President Richard Nixon, by 73 votes in Pike County that year.
On the trip, Carter touted his efforts to reduce the nation’s dependency on foreign oil, part of what he called a “comprehensive energy policy.” Critics read that as “higher taxes.”
Before he got to Clarksville, Carter passed Louisiana. An audience estimated at as many as 2,000 people crowded the riverfront as the Queen passed under the Champ Clark Bridge just before 6 p.m.
Some people had waited six hours for Carter, First Lady Rosalynn Carter and their 11-year-old daughter, Amy. Carter gave a speech from the upper deck of the boat, but the vessel did not dock.
“Hello, Louisiana,” the President said. “Thank you for coming out to see us.”
Mayor Tom Wallace, his wife, Lona, and Leone Cadwallader were among the local organizers. “Everyone kept saying that he wouldn’t stop here,” Cadwallader told the Louisiana Press-Journal. “But we wanted to have everything ready just in case.”
As many as 4,000 people were waiting at Clarksville. “Pike County was ready for the President’s visit with a host of gifts, banners, waving arms and well-wishers,” the Bowling Green Times said.
The President spent 15 minutes on the telephone in Lock and Dam 24 office before giving a 10-minute speech on the energy crisis. Lockmaster Dan Buckley called the proceedings “organized confusion.”
“Carter was trying to keep it as informal as possible,” Buckley said. “You couldn’t plan on anything.”
Clarksville Mayor Helen Barron and Bowling Green attorney James Millan greeted the entourage, and the Clopton High School band under the direction of Tom Cotton was ready with patriotic tunes.
Barron said it was “hard for me to think of this happening in a little town like Clarksville. It’s the greatest thrill of my life to welcome the first family to my hometown.”
Lewis Kent of Clarksville built a red-carpeted ramp that drew raves from the White House staff. Gifts included peaches from Stark Brothers Nurseries in Louisiana and a 10-pound slab of bacon from Woods Smoked Meats of Bowling Green.
A Secret Service agent accidentally cut a leg while examining the bacon. In true form, he didn’t flinch. Carter was visibly appreciative of other gifts as he and his family walked along a receiving line.
There were a few protests. An unidentified Louisiana resident told the Press-Journal that he wasn’t going to vote for Carter in 1980, but “thought my kids ought to have the thrill of seeing and hearing the President of the United States.” Striking union members at Hercules Inc. in Clarksville protested Carter’s wage policies.
“But unlike typical political rallies, Pike County hosted no visible hecklers, banners denouncing U.S. foreign policy, or presented opportunities for observers to put Carter ‘on the spot’ with touchy political questions,” the Times said.
The long day ended with Carter’s midnight jog at Lock and Dam 25 in Winfield. A week later, he was dealing with stories about a swamp rabbit that had come menacingly close to the President’s boat during a Georgia fishing trip the previous April.
The tale became “killer rabbit” fodder for the media and Carter opponents. In the 1980 election, Carter was trounced nationally by Republican Ronald Reagan, whose margin of victory in Pike County was 478 votes. Still, residents would never forget Carter’s visit.
“It isn’t every day that the President of the United States makes a stop in Pike County, Missouri,” the Times pointed out.
