Plains has no large hotel, a small gas station, and only a few restaurants, none of which are usually open for dinner. However, for the longest time, the tiny town had something that no other place in Georgia had: Jimmy Carter made it his home.
Especially as Mr. Carter retired from public life, the city had years to prepare for life after him. But now that he’s gone – Mr. Carter died last month aged 100 – the town hopes its prospects as a tourist destination have not been buried with its most famous son.
Optimism in the Plains is based on the experience of other small towns known almost exclusively for their ties to a former president, which history has shown can still draw crowds decades or centuries after that president’s death.
Hyde Park, bordering the Hudson River in New York City, has a steady stream of tourists who come to visit Franklin D. Roosevelt’s presidential library, home, and tomb. Tampico, Ill., has put up signs advertising it as the birthplace of Ronald Reagan, trying to encourage people to take a short detour on the way to Chicago to see the apartment where Mr. Reagan was born.
These cities and others are based on the country’s enduring fascination with its presidents. particularly among the collection of history buffs who find the insights they can offer irresistible.
“I recognized that there was something about experiencing what they lived through and seeing the world through their eyes,” said Joe Faikos, a history professor at Central Arizona College.
He has visited all available presidential birthplaces and homes and has interned at the Rutherford B. Hayes Presidential Center in Fremont, Ohio. He met the Carters in 2017 after the former president taught Sunday school at Maranatha Baptist Church in Plains.
However, there is no guarantee that the appeal will last forever. More than 100 presidential sites in major cities and towns in the region attract thousands of visitors each year, but interest can wane as a president recedes further into history. In recent years, the reappraisal of historical figures and the sins of the past that brought down monuments and renamed schools has also affected the appeal of historic sites.
Charlottesville, Va., saw a decline in visitors to Monticello, the plantation once owned by Thomas Jefferson. Tourism officials there have adapted, expanding what was once a generous interpretation of Jefferson’s story into a more complex portrayal, including his role in supporting slavery as an institution. They also tried to market Charlottesville as an emerging wine region—an identity Jefferson had also worked to create some 250 years earlier.
“Leisure travel used to focus on a kind of historical discovery, and now people — because of their relationship with history, because of the politicization of history — have a different relationship with the past,” said Courtney Cacatian, Charlottesville’s executive director. Albemarle Convention and Visitors Bureau. “A lot of people are no longer looking for that as part of their vacation experience.”
Plains is not so concerned about the crisis of history. Many in the community believe that people’s perceptions of the legacy of Mr. Carter will continue to be favorable. Americans remain divided about his performance as president. But the week of funeral events highlighted the widespread admiration for his character and the extensive work he did after his passing to protect democracy, fight diseases such as Guinea worm disease and provide support to poor people around the world. the world.
The Plains is somewhat stuck in time—a capsule that captures the lives Mr. Carter and his wife, Rosalynn, had lived there, even when they were still alive.
There are no car routes or supermarkets. The Dollar General downtown has a brick facade that makes it look like it’s been there forever. Plains High School no longer has students – it’s a site maintained by the National Park Service, just like the Carter family farm outside of town and even the Carters’ home off Main Street.
It’s a transformation in which the Carters have been deeply involved. They created a high school exhibit about segregation. Visitors walking through the president’s childhood home and farm can listen to recordings of Mr. Carter sharing memories from his childhood, such as visiting his black neighbors who lived in a rowdy house nearby and the sheer joy he felt when he received a pony for Christmas.
“There are so many things that President Carter had a hand in,” said AB Jackson, a Plains city councilwoman.
Sarah Wollenweber and her 17-year-old son, London, said the amount of documentation of Mr. Carter and where he grew up set The Plains apart from other presidential sites that had been visited across the country.
“He’s one of the last great presidents we’ve seen who is genuine and really kind, so it was really great to experience that,” London said. He and his mother drove 12 hours from Bloomington, Ill., to see Mr. Carter’s casket being carried to The Plains last week.
“They dedicated the whole town to him and his wife,” he added.
Many residents believe that the Carters were well aware of how much their presence attracted tourists and positively affected the city’s economy.
From 2014 to 2019, when Mr. Carter still taught Sunday school regularly at Maranatha Baptist Church, at least 50,000 tourists a year came to the Plains. Beginning in 2020, the number of travelers dropped significantly as the pandemic hampered tourism and the Carters’ health declined. But attendance rose again last year, with about 45,000 people coming from the city. That doesn’t include the hundreds of people a day who descended on the Plains after Mr. Carter on December 29th.
For many years, Mr. Carter encouraged improvements to increase tourist appeal. He founded the Friends of Jimmy Carter, a nonprofit organization that owns the Plains Historic Inn, with its seven suites, as well as the antique mall below it. He was also instrumental in opening one of the city’s two restaurants: the Buffalo Café, which serves cheeseburgers, salads and pimento cheese sandwiches. And he convinced lawmakers to fund a train that would drop off visitors to his former campaign headquarters.
“He wanted to make sure the city remained viable,” said Kim Carter Fuller, the president’s niece. “Whatever he could do within reason, he did.”
But Plains could only hold so much. The town is less than a square mile in size and has little public land for sale for development. There is also tension between wanting to attract more tourists and not wanting to disrupt the traditional way of life in the city.
“We don’t really want to change Plains,” said Ellen Harris, a city councilwoman. “That’s what makes us unique.”
Locals were grateful that the Carters chose to be buried at their home instead of their presidential library in Atlanta, a decision they hope will help maintain a steady flow of visitors. In the coming months the Carter graves will be opened to the public. The modest ranch that the president and first lady built in 1961 — where they raised their children and returned to after leaving the White House — will be open to the public for the first time shortly.
Events with historical ties — such as the city’s annual peanut festival in September that pays homage to the roots of Mr. Carter as a farmer—will continue to be a draw, some say. There are also newer attractions. The latter, Apt. 9A, which opened for private tours in October, is the government-subsidized home into which Mr. Carter moved his wife and three sons after his father’s death in 1953.
After walking Ms. Carter through the apartment in 2001, Annette Wise, who led the project, took donations and scoured thrift stores for items to recreate the family’s modest furniture at a time when they had almost no no income at all. Chips in a closet helped her identify the exact shade of dark green the Carters had painted their living room and later used on campaign signs.
Ms. Wise said he believes all the time and effort will be worth it in the end.
“Plains is headed in the right direction,” said Ms. Wise, who is a member of the Plains Historical Preservation Trust and founder and president of the Rosalynn Carter Butterfly Trail. “They have left us big shoes to fill. But they gave us plenty of time to learn what to do.”
Rick Rojas contributed to the report. Kirsten Noyes contributed to the research.
