The Adventures of BillyMax: FORT SMITH: The Fort That Wouldn't Die

As the nation moved west, the US established a series of frontier garrisons. Arkansas officially became part of the US as the District of Arkansas in 1803. The federal government began to intervene in inter-tribal hostilities in the area and in 1817. A fort was built at Belle Point, where the Arkansas and Poteau rivers meet, and named for General Thomas Smith of the federal garrison in St. Louis. For the next 7 years, Fort Smith military personnel arbitrated clashes between the Osage and Cherokee tribes, negotiated treaties, and patrolled the borders of the US that were contested by Spain.

Soon settlers arrived from the east, businesses arrived that catered to the settlers and the soldiers and a community grew up around Fort Smith. Separating the history of the fort and the history of the town is difficult.

In 1823, a major outbreak of disease claimed the lives of 25% of the troops at Fort Smith.The following year, Col Matthew Arbuckle moved the 5 companies of soldiers under his command in search of healthier land to the west. The army abandoned the fort in 1824 and moved west to establish Fort Gibson in the Indian Territory (Oklahoma). The garrison stayed empty until 1833 when Capt John Stuart used it as an inspection station to intercept those illegally selling whiskey to the local Indians. His mission lasted 1 year, and, again the post closed. In 1838 the Federal Government purchased land at the southeast corner of the Arkansas and Poteau Rivers, reestablishing Fort Smith. From 1841 to 1845, Zachary Taylor commanded the 2nd Department, Western Division, at the fort in the years before the Civil War.

Fort Smith lasted longer than most western posts due to its location in the river valley that provided easy access to the west and due to its close proximity to the newly established Choctaw reservation in the Indian Territory. When the majority of the troops had vacated Fort Smith, the fort retained its utility by serving as the headquarters for the Western Choctaw Agency and also as the hub of enforcement for prohibition activities in that area.

The history of Fort Smith, the fort and the town, is interwoven with that of native peoples from the fort's time as a peacekeeping entity to the part it played in the forced relocation of thousands of native tribes west of the Mississippi River, The Trail of Tears.

As Americans demanded the need for more land, Thomas Jefferson proposed a solution – relocate the eastern tribes into a buffer zone between the US and the the land to the west claimed by European countries. Between 1816 and 1840, a number of eastern tribes ceded their land to the US and were forcibly moved west into what is now Oklahoma. As a result more than 100,000 native men, women and children moved on an arduous route that took them halfway across the country. There were several points of debarkation and several western routes used, but they ultimately passed thru or were held at Fort Smith.

US Army Captain S. D. Sturgis, the post’s commander at the start of the Civil War, withdrew his men from Fort Smith when he received word that 2 approaching Confederate steamships carrying over 300 soldiers were on the river. When the Confederate army arrived on April 23, 1861, they found the fort empty; it became a Confederate supply depot.

In 1860, the state of Arkansas had a population of 435,450 people, 111,115 were slaves and 11,481 were slave owners. It appeared inevitable that when the Confederacy voted to secede from the Union in April 1861, Arkansas would be on board with the Confederates; however, while more than 60,000 Arkansas residents joined rebel troops, at least 9,000 citizens and more than 5,000 Blacks fought on the side of the Union.

With Arkansas’ formal secession from the Union, the fort remained in Confederate hands until the summer of 1863. Fort Smith troops took part in the Battle of Wilson’s Creek in 1861 and the Confederate defeat at the Battle of Pea Ridge in 1862. Occupied by only a small contingent of soldiers in August 1863, Union forces recaptured the fort and held it for the remainder of the war.

Fort Smith's strategic location on intersecting rivers and roads made it both a valuable staging area as a Union outpost and a continuing target for the Confederate faithful holed up in the surrounding mountains and in Indian Territory. The fort became a refuge for citizens aligned with the Union and suffering from supply raids by rebel troops. In 1865, Confederate leadership officially turned Arkansas, Texas and Indian Territory over to the Union, and the Fort Smith Confederates returned home to begin the work of rebuilding their community.

Post-Civil War, Fort Smith became an outpost in the sub-district of Arkansas, charged with enforcement of Reconstruction regulations and registration of freedmen. Fort Smith evolved from military to administration of frontier justice, as a succession of tough judges presided on the bench and attempted to impose order. Judge Isaac Parker, the infamous "hanging judge," meted out sentences over a 21-year period, ordering hundreds of defendants to jail and 160 men to "hang by the neck until you are dead, dead, dead!"

Arkansas weathered the Great Depression, the crop-killing drought and the movement of many of its citizens to 'greener pastures.' As the country began to rebound, Fort Smith, taking advantage of its location, situated on two rivers that lead to the Mississippi, and an abundance of roadways, became an industrial hub.

The former military installation briefly served as a relocation camp for Japanese and German U.S. citizens during World War II, but in 1975 and 1980 also provided shelter and transition for Vietnamese and Cuban refugees seeking asylum in the United States.

The Fort Smith National Historic Site includes the remains of the original 1817 fort plus the 1870's Federal courtroom of the Western District of Arkansas. Inside are the restored courtroom of the famed "Hangin' Judge" Isaac C. Parker, and the dingy frontier jail aptly named "Hell on the Border."