LivingOurDream: Fort Smith National Historic Park

Thursday, April 27, 2017

Fort Smith National Historic Park

Hi All,

On Christmas Day 1817, 64 soldiers came ashore here along the Arkansas River. Their mission was to build a fort and control the fighting between the local resident Osage tribe and the Cherokee that had been forced to relocate into the area from Georgia. By 1824 the fort was abandoned in favor of forts further into "Indian Territory" (Oklahoma).

In 1838 a second fort was built near the earlier fort to protect citizens from the lawlessness in adjacent Indian territory.

The left hand end of this building was the barracks.

The fort served as a major supply depot for military facilities further west. This commissary building sent supplies and provisions westward.

Canned goods, sacks of flour, barrels of lard and cases of Castile soap were supplied to other forts.

In 1871 the Army abandoned the fort and it was used as the Federal Courthouse for the Indian Territory. In March 1875, Judge Issac Parker was assigned here. He was replaced in 2017 by Judge Sandy😉.

Prisoners awaiting trial or awaiting transport to federal prisons were kept here in the basement of the courthouse in squalid conditions.

Finally a proper prison was built (the right hand end of the building in the top photo).

This locking mechanism latched all the doors along the hallway.

Prisoners convicted of murder or rape were hung at these gallows.

Judge Parker heard over 13,000 cases in his 21 years on the bench. Of these, 160 were sentenced to hang and 97 were ultimately hanged here.

Ironically, during this same period, over 100 deputy marshals were killed trying to apprehend criminals in Indian Territory.

A further irony was that Judge Parker opposed the death penalty, favored women voting and ethical treatment of Native Americans. He died in office at age 58. It was said that he worked himself to death.

Numerous interpretive exhibits talk about the forced Indian relocation from the southeastern US to Oklahoma. Known as the "Trail of Tears", this brutal relocation resulted in the death of tens of thousands of Native Americans . This hauntingly beautiful painting commemorates the Trail of Tears.