The family farm where President Jimmy Carter tended peanuts, corn and sugarcane as a boy and later returned throughout his life will be preserved and opened to the public.

Preservation group The Conservation Fund said Monday that it has acquired the farm as part of a 2,458-acre (995-hectare) purchase. The farm is just outside Plains, Georgia, the 39th president’s hometown. Carter spent his youth exploring the woods around the farm and returned many times as an adult to walk with his wife Rosalynn and hunt, the fund said.

Near the end of his life, Carter, who died in 2024 at 100, returned to the farm for one final fishing trip to its pond. Rosalynn Carter died in 2023.

“For our family, this land was always about more than a farm. It was home — a place my grandparents treasured. We’re grateful to The Conservation Fund and to everyone working to make sure it’s protected for generations to come,” Jason Carter, a grandson of the Carters, said in a statement.

The farm should be open to the public for hunting, fishing and outdoor recreation as soon as next year, The Conservation Fund said. The fund said it plans to transfer the land to the Georgia Department of Natural Resources the following year. The purchase price was $8.5 million, The Washington Post reported.