SRT25 - Day 8
Summer 2025 Road Trip
Sunday, April 13, 2025
Fort Smith is an often overlooked Historical Site. It has a long and rich history, some good, some not so good.
In 1803 the United States purchased the Louisiana Territory from France for $15 million dollars, which doubled the size of the United States of America.
In 1817 the original Fort Smith was built at the confluence of the Arkansas and Poteau rivers to help quell the violence between the local Osage tribes and the Cherokee tribes that were moving westward.
In 1820 the Long Expedition (1819-1820) stopped at Fort Smith on its return trip from exploring the Yellowstone and the Rocky Mountains.
In 1824 Fort Smith was abandoned and the military unit was moved west to establish Fort Gibson. Then in 1838 Fort Smith was rebuilt as part of a line of forts from Minnesota to Louisiana to separate the territory occupied by Native American tribes from those settled by American citizens.
Between 1830 and 1950 approximately 100,000 indigenous people were forcibly relocated to the Oklahoma territory, with a large number of them passing through Fort Smith.
From 1846-48 the U.S. Army used Fort Smith as a base during the Mexican-American War.
During the 1848-49 California gold rush, Captain Randolph B. Marcy established a wagon road from Fort Smith to Santa Fe. Making Fort Smith one of the main “Jumping off” places for anyone wanting to go to California.
In the 1850’s it was a main distribution center for all the military posts and settlements in the Arkansas River Valley.
In 1868 during the civil war, Fort Smith housed four regiments of the U.S. Colored Troops (USCT).
In 1871 the U.S. Military officially abandoned its military post at Fort Smith.
If all that wasn’t enough, in 1875 Judge Isaac C. Parker took over the judicial system for northwest Arkansas and Oklahoma. Judge Parker was known as a “Hanging Judge”. From 1875 to 1896, Judge Parker sentenced 160 people to death, 79 of those sentences were carried out by execution. This was a tough land and it needed a tough judge to preside over it.
Several movies and novels were inspired by Judge Isaac C. Parker (Arkansas ) including; Rooster Cogburn, Rooster Cogburn and the Lady, Belle Starr the Bandit Queen, Dalton’s Woman, True Grit and Hang Em High.
I’m sure Judge Roy Bean (Texas) had some influence on them as well. But that’s a different story for a different day.
Camping near Lake Wedington tonight.