IDAHO FALLS – More than 3,000 people filled the auditorium at Pocatello High School as the Democratic senator from Massachusetts stood at the podium to address the crowd.

It was Sept. 6, 1960. The Gate City was one of many stops for John F. Kennedy during the Western states tour of his presidential campaign. Accompanying him during his visit was Idaho’s U.S. Senator, Frank Church, who’d nominated Kennedy at the Democratic National Convention in Los Angeles two months earlier.

At the DNC, Kennedy delivered what is now referred to as the “New Frontier” speech, in which he called on Americans to move beyond the status quo and help usher in a modern era of leadership.

“The New Frontier is here, whether we seek it or not,” Kennedy said at the time. “Beyond that frontier are uncharted areas of science and space, unsolved problems of peace and war, unconquered pockets of ignorance and prejudice, unanswered questions of poverty and surplus.”

“I’m asking each of you to be pioneers toward that New Frontier,” Kennedy added.

Kennedy’s speaking style, combined with what many have described as a charismatic personality and youthful good looks, made him an appealing candidate for many voters. At age 43, Kennedy was two months away from being the youngest man ever elected president.

A 2013 article from the Idaho State Journal reports there were about 600 people who waited outside the high school auditorium that day to get a glimpse of Kennedy before his arrival.

As the presidential hopeful began his remarks to the crowd in Pocatello, he praised and endorsed Church, who had been the keynote speaker at the DNC.

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“It was not an accident that he was chosen to keynote the Democratic convention as one of the youngest members of the Senate, as a member of the Senate who has not served out his first term, and coming from a small State, with few electoral votes,” Kennedy said to applause. “That is a testimony not only to Idaho but to Frank Church, and I am delighted with it.”

He voiced his support for a proposal to build a hydroelectric power plant along Burns Creek near Palisades. The bill, which provided electricity for people in the Upper Snake River Valley, had come before the U.S. Senate twice. Kennedy voted for it both times and wanted to see it advance in the House.

He also referenced the National Reactor Testing Station on the desert near Arco, the predecessor to Idaho National Laboratory. Kennedy called it “a key to the development of the peaceful use of atomic energy” and “an important outpost to the new frontier of energy.”

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The work that happens at NRTS is something the nation can be proud of, he said.

“That station is doing an excellent job of testing atomic powerplants and reactors,” Kennedy told the crowd. “Aggressive atomic research and development is needed if this country is going to win the race for peaceful competition.”

Kennedy’s visit to eastern Idaho lasted less than 48 hours, but it left a lifelong impression on many locals. Still, it failed to earn Kennedy a victory in the Gem State.

Voting records show Richard Nixon, Kennedy’s Republican opponent, carried Idaho in the general election with nearly 54% of the popular vote.

Though Kennedy went on to win the general election nationwide with 303 electoral votes, compared to Nixon’s 219, he only had a .17% lead in the popular vote. As Brad Meltzer points out in his new book about JFK, Kennedy’s victory was the smallest popular vote margin of any presidential candidate of the 20th century, and so far, the 21st century.

Kennedy had a little over a year left in his term when he was assassinated on November 22, 1963. He never visited Idaho while in office, but he did sign several bills into law that impacted the Gem State. Among them is a reclamation project that provided irrigation water for more than 5,000 acres of land near Weiser. In 1963, S. 1007 gave consumers in the Pacific Northwest priority access to electricity generated by federal hydroelectric plants.

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Days after President Trump signed an executive order calling for the declassification of the JFK assassination files, we thought it was worth looking back at Idaho’s connection with America’s 35th president.

Locals remember JFK

Mark Nye, a Pocatello attorney who served in the Legislature from 2014-2022 and died days after leaving office, was a freshman at Pocatello High School when JFK came to town. He was among the 600 people who waited outside the auditorium for his arrival.

In a 2013 interview with the Idaho State Journal, Nye said the presidential hopeful was viewed like a rock star, similar to Elvis Presley.

“When he came out, the teenage girls were giddy and even jumping up and down in excitement,” Nye said.

Kennedy’s plane reportedly landed at what was then the Pocatello Municipal Airport around 4:30 that morning after a two-hour delay. About 50 people were camped out to greet him.

Church was the first to step off the plane and reportedly asked, “What are all you people doing up at this hour of the morning?”

Meltzer notes in his book that Kennedy loved interacting with crowds during public appearances, and that was his response in Pocatello. He’d planned to sleep on the plane before his first speaking engagement, according to ISJ, but decided to shake people’s hands instead.

Pocatello High School wasn’t the only place where Kennedy spoke. During his trip, he also held a press conference at the Bannock Hotel.

Richard Stallings, another Pocatello Democrat who represented Idaho in Congress from 1985-1993, wasn’t in town that day. He was in Salt Lake City on his way to New Zealand to serve a mission for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.

Kennedy made a stop in Salt Lake on another leg of his Western states tour and Stallings was able to meet him.

“I said, ‘Welcome to Salt Lake, Mr. President,’” Stallings recalls, noting Kennedy was still a senator. “He gave me a big grin and shook my hand with both hands and moved on.”

Missionary obligations prevented Stallings from voting in that election, but he remembers reading newspapers and following his administration. Stallings wrote several letters to President Kennedy as a missionary, none of which received a reply.

In 1962, Frank Church was seeking re-election for a second term. In a 1981 interview, Church said the President scheduled a stop in Idaho on his behalf. It never happened, due to the Cuban Missile Crisis, but Church said working with administration officials to inform the public about what was happening allowed him to get re-elected.

“In an indirect way, the Administration did assist me,” Church said.

Stallings was attending Weber State University in Ogden when JFK was assassinated.

“I was walking across the parking lot and someone said, ‘The President’s been shot!’ I thought he was talking about the president of the university, and I thought, ‘Why the hell would anyone shoot the university president?’” Stallings recalls.

Moments later, he walked into one of the buildings on campus and saw a group of people gathered around a TV. The news of Kennedy’s death is still a vivid memory that brings tears to his eyes.

“I was a great fan of his,” says Stallings.

Stallings wasn’t the only one who reacted that way. Diane Bilyeu, a former state legislator from Pocatello, had a similar reaction.

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The 89-year-old woman has no memory of Kennedy’s visit to the Gate City, but she still remembers where she was when she heard the news.

“I was in my kitchen listening on the radio and it was such a shock. I was devastated, even though I was not politically active at the time. I loved John Kennedy. He was the reason I became politically active,” says Bilyeu.

Five years later, Bilyeu was elected to a seat in the Idaho Senate. She attended a rally at Idaho State University in 1968 when Robert Kennedy, JFK’s brother, made a stop there during his presidential campaign.

Similarly, JFK’s attendance at Harvard University prompted Nye to enroll there. He sat 10 rows behind the president as a student when Kennedy attended a football game at the private university.

Nye shared with the Journal his memories of watching Kennedy’s funeral procession in Washington, D.C.

“From Pocatello to Massachusetts and back, I was just one, like so many, with a bond and connection to JFK,” Nye said.

People nationwide felt the loss of JFK’s death and Stallings says that what made it so impactful was Kennedy’s ability to “place himself in the homes and the hearts of the people.”

“It was almost like you lost a personal friend or a family member,” says Stallings. “He and Jackie were a dynamic pair. They just attracted people.”

There had never been a president like him, Stallings says. As far as he’s concerned, Kennedy remains one of America’s greatest presidents.