The yacht, named after Sequoyah, a leader of the Cherokee Nation, measured 104 feet long. In its heyday, it had elegant cabins of mahogany and teak with brass finishings.

The US government bought it from a Texas oil tycoon in 1931 for $200,000, and it was soon reserved for use by presidents.

The vessel was berthed at Washington Navy Yard, a short drive from the White House.

Hoover was so enamored of the Sequoia he even used a picture of it on his 1932 Christmas card.

However, at a time when many Americans were suffering from unemployment and poverty due to the Great Depression, the card drew criticism from political opponents.

In the president's bedroom cabin, the presidential seal decorated the wall above the bed and the bedspread.

It was ideal for hosting family gatherings, or meetings with foreign leaders and their staff.

President Harry Truman added the piano to the salon after becoming president in 1945.

Lyndon Baines Johnson later added a drinks bar.

President Franklin Delano Roosevelt, who used a wheelchair for much of his presidency, had an elevator installed so he could access each deck.

According to legend, he also decommissioned the vessel so he and Prime Minister Winston Churchill could enjoy alcoholic drinks on deck while they planned their strategy in World War II.

At the time, no alcohol was permitted on US Navy vessels.

The vessel was intended as a place presidents could use as a private retreat, and there are no official records of its guests. As a result, rumors have long circulated about what took place on board.

In June 1973, President Richard Nixon hosted Soviet leader Leonid Brezhnev on the Sequoia, where the two negotiated the SALT-1 nuclear arms treaty.

It was Nixon who embarked on more trips on the boat than any other president, taking more than 100 in total.

During the Watergate crisis, he used the boat as a refuge.

Nixon told his family of his intention to resign the presidency over dinner on the Sequoia before retiring to the boat's saloon to drink scotch and play "God Bless America" on Truman's piano, CBS News reported.

On May 29, 1963, President John F Kennedy celebrated his 46th birthday aboard the Sequoia.

Among the guests for the dinner-party cruise were actors David Niven and Rat Pack member Peter Lawford, who was married to Kennedy's sister.

His brother Bobby Kennedy, the attorney general, was among the family who attended, alongside select members of Washington high society.

Guests described the event to The Washington Post as a raucous party, with French cuisine, flowing Champagne, and the president even making a pass at the wife of a party guest, a prominent journalist.

The birthday party was to be his last. Seven months later, Kennedy was assassinated on an official visit to Dallas.

Johnson would use a projector to watch Western films on board the ship.

He also used the Sequoia as a retreat to cajole potential allies and formulate policy.

On board, he hosted members of Congress whom he lobbied over his landmark civil rights bill and strategized with officials as the US became further mired in the Vietnam War.

"Of course, he can get on a plane and go to Florida or anywhere else, but that requires throwing the machinery into motion," Kissinger told Newsweek in 2012. "But here, he just can say at 5 o'clock: 'I'm going to the boat, I'm taking four or five people. And you don't have to call it a meeting and you don't have to prepare the papers.'"

When Carter took office in 1977, he sought to make good on his election pledge to strip the White House of the trappings of an "imperial presidency."

With running costs totaling $800,000 a year, the Sequoia had to go.

The New York Times reported it sold to a private buyer, Thomas Malloy, for $286,000, or almost $1.5 million in today's money, when adjusted for inflation. Malloy turned the boat into a tourist attraction.

Later, Carter revealed that selling the vessel was a decision he came to regret.

"People thought I was not being reverent enough to the office I was holding, that I was too much of a peanut farmer, not enough of an aristocrat, or something like that. So I think that shows that the American people want something of, an element of, image of monarchy in the White House," he told the JFK presidential library in a 2011 interview.

After its sale, the presidential yacht had a succession of owners.

It was designated a National Historic Landmark in 1987, spent the '90s in a shipyard, and ran chartered cruises until 2014.

However, the Sequoia fell into disrepair in subsequent years amid a legal battle over its ownership. It sat decaying in a Virginia dry dock, overrun by raccoons.

Its current owner, investor Michael Cantor, began restoring the vessel in 2019 and plans to house it at the Richardson Maritime Centre in Maryland when the work is complete, Boat International reported.

In 1973, Arab countries that were part of OPEC (Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries) imposed an oil embargo on the United States in retaliation for their military support of Israel during the Yom Kippur War. As a result, gas prices skyrocketed and shortages caused long lines at gas stations. While the embargo ended in 1974, it exposed the vulnerabilities of US reliance on foreign oil.

In response to the 1973 energy crisis, Carter created the Department of Energy in 1977. He implemented tax credits for homeowners who installed solar panels and passed the National Energy Act into law in 1978, moving to reduce oil imports and promote energy conservation.

In his speech, Carter emphasized the importance of "harnessing the power of the sun to enrich our lives as we move away from our crippling dependence on foreign oil."

"Today, in directly harnessing the power of the sun, we're taking the energy that God gave us, the most renewable energy that we will ever see, and using it to replace our dwindling supplies of fossil fuels," Carter said in his speech.

Reagan moved to fulfill his campaign promise to abolish the Department of Energy in 1981, but he walked back his effort in 1985 due to insufficient support in Congress. He allowed Carter's solar-panel tax credits to expire in 1985, instead championing nuclear-power initiatives.

He also believed in allowing free-market capitalism to dictate the production and use of fossil fuels rather than government regulations, a policy that became known as "Reaganomics."

Carter's solar panels were removed during repairs to the White House roof and were not reinstalled. 

"Putting them back up would be very unwise, based on cost," Reagan's White House press secretary Dale Petroskey told the Associated Press at the time, according to Yale Climate Connections.

The White House remained without solar panels until 2002, when the National Park Service installed three solar energy systems that provided hot water for grounds maintenance staff and the White House pool, according to the White House Historical Association.

In 2017, Carter leased 10 acres of his farmland in Plains, Georgia, to the solar energy company SolAmerica Energy, The New York Times reported. The company built 3,852 solar panels, enough to provide more than half of the power for the 683-person town.

"It's very special to me because I was so disappointed when the panels came off of the White House, and now to see them in Plains is just terrific," former first lady Rosalynn Carter told The New York Times.

The 30-acre campus houses The Carter Center, a nonprofit organization dedicated to conflict resolution, eradicating diseases, and promoting human rights around the world. The grounds also contain a restaurant, non-denominational chapel, reception hall, and meeting rooms for retreats and training sessions.

The Bible that Carter was sworn in on. The "red phone" that sat on the Resolute Desk in the Oval Office that he used to communicate with the US military in crisis. Presidential speeches with Carter's handwritten notes. I figured there would be some notable artifacts at the presidential library and museum, but I didn't realize just how many and how significant they would be.

Carter grew up in the small farming town of Plains, Georgia, which is about 150 miles south of the presidential library in Atlanta. In a section about Carter's youth, a display case held Carter's sixth-grade report card, high-school diploma, class ring, and an essay that earned him an "A." I loved that the museum focused on his childhood, as well as his presidency.

The replica was designed to look exactly like the Oval Office did during Carter's presidency, complete with the same pink, gold, and green striped couches and oval-shaped rug.

In the audio tour of the room, Carter said that people would often walk into the magnificent office and feel so awestruck that they'd forget what they were going to say. Even though it was just a recreation of the actual room, I could feel the same gravitas.

Sheen narrated an introductory video at the museum's entrance and the "Day in the Life of the President" exhibit, which chronicled Carter's schedule of meetings and memos on December 11, 1978.

Sheen told Empire magazine that President Bartlet in "The West Wing" was partially inspired by Carter as well as John F. Kennedy and Bill Clinton.

"We wanted to represent the very best that we had in that office in recent history and those three men covered all of the territory that Bartlet would inhabit," he said.

This was my first visit to a presidential library, but it won't be my last. I'm determined to collect stamps from all 15 across the US.

Jimmy and Rosalynn's families were friends and neighbors growing up in Plains, Georgia. The two began dating in 1945, while Rosalynn was a student at Georgia Southwestern College and while Jimmy was enrolled at the US Naval Academy.

After their first date, Jimmy told his mother, "She's the girl I want to marry," according to the White House.

They wed on July 7, 1946.

Rosalynn served as the honorary chair of the President's Commission on Mental Health from 1977 to 1978, which helped pass the Mental Health Systems Act of 1980.

After her time in the White House, she remained active in humanitarian work with the establishment of the Rosalynn Carter Institute for Caregivers and a longtime partnership with Habitat for Humanity. She also wrote five books.

In May 2023, The Carter Center shared that Rosalynn had dementia. She celebrated her 96th birthday that August, and she died a few months later on November 19, 2023.

Her funeral in Atlanta was attended by all living first ladies as well as President Joe Biden, Vice President Kamala Harris, second gentleman Doug Emhoff, former president Bill Clinton, and members of Congress.

The Carters have 25 grandchildren and great-grandchildren, The Carter Center said in a statement following Rosalynn's death.

Jack and his first wife, Judy Langford, had two children. Their son Jason James, born in 1975, was a toddler when Carter took office in 1977. Their daughter, Sarah Rosemary, was born in 1978. They eventually divorced, and he married Elizabeth Brasfield in 1992, gaining two stepchildren.

In 2006, Jack ran for a Nevada seat in the US Senate, the first major office the Carter family has sought since 1980. He earned the Democratic nomination, but was unsuccessful against an incumbent Republican senator in the general election.

Jack holds a law degree from the University of Georgia, but he spent most of his career in the investment and finance industry, The New York Times reported.

Chip worked as vice president, then president and CEO at Friendship Force, a not-for-profit that organized international exchanges for adult homestays. He also served as a member of Plains City Council in Georgia.

He has been married three times and has a son, James Carter IV, and a daughter, Margaret Alicia Carter.

Jeff and his wife, Annette, met at Georgia Southwestern University. They married in 1975 during Carter's presidential campaign and lived in the White House for the first years of their marriage.

"While living in the White House, Jeff and Annette helped host everybody from Bob Dylan to Pope John Paul II," their son Josh wrote in Annette's obituary in September 2021. "In some of Annette's favorite White House memories, she greeted the cast of Star Wars after the release of 'A New Hope' and John Travolta after he starred in 'Saturday Night Fever' and 'Grease.' These experiences were quite extraordinary for Jeff and Annette's first few years of marriage."

Jeff co-founded Computer Mapping Consultants, a firm that became a consultancy for the World Bank in 1978 and held foreign government contracts, The Bryan Times reported.

He and Annette had three children together. In 2018, their 28-year-old son Jeremy died from a suspected heart attack.

Amy was 9 years old when her father's presidency began. She had a pet Siamese cat named Misty who accompanied her to Camp David and took up residence in her doll house.

Amy became a political activist in the '80s and '90s, and she was even arrested at a CIA recruitment protest, the Los Angeles Times reported. She later received a master's degree from Tulane in art history and wed computer consultant James Wentzel in 1996. At her wedding ceremony she was not given away, saying she did not belong to anyone, People magazine reported.

She had one child with Wentzel, a son named Hugo James Wentzel. They later divorced, and she married John Joseph "Jay" Kelly in 2007. They share another son, Errol Carter Kelly.

Amy worked with her dad on the 1995 children's book "The Little Baby Snoogle-Fleejer," which Jimmy wrote and she illustrated, about a boy who befriends a monster. She remains a board member of The Carter Center, but she has otherwise stayed out of public life.

Among their grandchildren is Jack's son Jason James Carter (pictured), a former Georgia state senator who unsuccessfully ran for governor in 2014. 

His sister, Sarah Rosemary, earned a PhD in neuroscience from the University of California San Francisco in 2007 and works as the principal at Science Policy Consulting LLC, according to her LinkedIn profile. 

Jack also has two stepchildren: Sarah Chuldenko, a painter, and John Chuldenko, a filmmaker.

Chip's son, James Carter IV, works as an opposition researcher. He made headlines during the 2012 presidential election, after he helped unearth the infamous "47%" video that ostracized nominee Mitt Romney, NPR reported. He later received a thank-you note from former President Barack Obama, CBS News reported.

Chip's daughter Margaret has remained out of the public eye.

Jeff's oldest son, Joshua Jeffery Carter, hosts a podcast called "Unchanging Principles," a reference to a line from Jimmy's inaugural address.

Jeff's youngest, James "Jamie" Carlton Carter, married his longtime girlfriend Anna in a backyard pandemic wedding in October 2021, then held a larger ceremony a year later at the Carter Center, according to their wedding website.

Amy's son, Hugo James Wentzel, and stepson, Errol Carter Kelly, have attended public events with their grandparents, but they have otherwise kept a low profile.

Correction: November 29, 2023 — An earlier version of this story misstated the number of grandchildren and great-grandchildren shared by Jimmy and Rosalynn Carter. They had 25 grandchildren and great-grandchildren, not 22.

Here, FDR and British Prime Minister Winston Churchill fish in the woods around "Shangri La." The two men reportedly planned the D-Day invasion from a porch on one of the cabins.

Before taking office, Trump once told a German journalist in an interview, "Camp David is very rustic, it's nice, you'd like it. You know how long you'd like it? For about 30 minutes."

By August 2020, Trump had made 500 visits to his properties. Of those 500, Trump had visited Mar-A-Lago 134 times. 

Comparatively, Trump visited Camp David five times in his first year in office, according to USA Today. He visited his golf clubs 150 times in his first year. 

Sources: Washington Post, Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington, USA Today

Source: Reuters

He spent 72 hours at Camp David and cut his trip short to return to the White House and address the nation. 

Source: Washington Post

Source: CBS News

Source: Washington Examiner

President Joe Biden held a joint news conference with South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol, left, and then-Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida at Camp David on August 18, 2023.

"This is the first summit I've hosted at Camp David as president. I can think of no more fitting location to begin the next era of cooperation," Biden said at the time. "In the months and years ahead, we're going to continue to seize those possibilities together — unwavering in our unity and unmatched in our resolve."

President Joe Biden leaned on his family during a difficult stretch of his campaign following his first debate with former President Donald Trump. (In July 2024, Biden stepped aside as the Democratic nominee, paving the way for the eventual nomination of Vice President Kamala Harris as the party's standard bearer.)

Trump won a second term in November 2024 and come January 2025, it'll once again be the president-elect's turn to utilize the retreat.

Editor's note: This story was first published in February 2018 and has been updated with recent information.

The name "Shangri-La" was the name of a fictional kingdom in the book "The Lost Horizon" by James Hilton.

The retreat center was originally built in 1938 as a summer camp for use by government employees as part of The New Deal's Works Progress Administration, so it wasn't equipped for chilly weather.

David Eisenhower was 5 years old when his grandfather named the presidential retreat after him. Today, David Eisenhower works as the director of the Institute for Public Service and a lecturer at the University of Pennsylvania's Annenberg School for Communication.

Aspen has four bedrooms, a kitchen, an office, and a patio.

The helicopter flight from the White House to Camp David takes around 30 minutes, according to Eisenhower's presidential library.

There is also a second pool further out on the grounds.

Camp David measures 180 acres and includes miles of walking trails through the Catoctin Mountains.

President Jimmy Carter convened Egyptian President Anwar Sadat and Israeli Prime Minister Menachem Begin at Camp David in 1978, where the leaders negotiated a peace treaty between the two countries.

Plaid and wicker furniture were popular decor trends in the 1970s.

FDR was the first US president to deliver fireside chats over the radio in 1933. Reagan brought them back in 1982, and every president since has continued the tradition except for President-elect Donald Trump, who stopped recording weekly addresses about two years into his first term.

Reagan held a groundbreaking ceremony for the chapel at Camp David in 1988, and George H.W. Bush dedicated the space during his presidency in 1991.

George H.W. Bush revisited the chapel to celebrate Easter in 2006 during the presidency of his son, President George W. Bush.

President George W. Bush had a placard made for his golf cart labeling it "Golf Cart One," a reference to Air Force One. He drove it during visits to Camp David in 2006, 2007, and 2008.

Leaders from the UK, Russia, Germany, Japan, Italy, Canada, and France joined Obama at Camp David in 2012 to discuss the European debt crisis.

Camp David also has a bowling alley and a movie theater.

Trump described Camp David as "very rustic" and told reporters in 2017 that they would tire of it after 30 minutes.

He spent more time at his Mar-a-Lago estate in Palm Beach, Florida, which became known as his "winter White House."

The wicker dining set and plaid couches have been replaced with sleek leather chairs and recessed lighting.