Select the program title for a detailed description. Please submit reservation form at least three weeks in advance. For more information call, 479-783-3961.

Program Highlights

Building Tour

• Daily life of a prisoner
• Life of a US Deputy Marshal 
• Basics of the Federal Justice System
• Life and times of Judge Parker (1875-1896)
• Execution day on the gallows optional

Justice, Executions, and the Gallows

• The role of execution in the justice system
• What crimes merited execution in the Federal Court system
• The different roles people played in the courtroom
• Judge Parker - the man behind the "hanging judge" myth
• Execution day - How? What? and Why?

 First Fort Smith

• Indian Removal - a brief introduction
• The importance of the land to the Osage
• The Osage/Cherokee war
• Location, location, location - why Belle Point was selected as the site for Fort Smith
• Where the Arkansas and Poteau Rivers meet
• Soldiers as pioneers and peace keepers
• Daily life at the fort
• The standoff between the fort and Osage warrior Mad Buffalo
• The Whisky War
  

Life of a Civil War Soldier (with weapon demonstration)

• The daily life of a soldier
• Uniforms worn by both Union and Confederate Infantry soldiers
• Equipment soldiers carried
• Food soldiers ate
• What soldiers did for entertainment
• Civil War weapons