• Rifle Regiment arriving at Belle Point, 1817. Artwork by Michael Haynes

    Fort Smith

    National Historic Site AR,OK

October 10, 1873 Execution

drawing of rope tied as a noose
On October 10, 1873, two men were executed on the gallows at Fort Smith. Tunagee (alias Tuni) and Young Wolf were Cherokee Indians who had killed two trappers on the Grand River in the Cherokee Nation. The motive for the crime was apparently robbery, but the culprits only secured a few steel traps and other items of little value. Both men were sentenced by Judge William Story and were among the seven men hanged for murder before the arrival of Judge Isaac C. Parker

Did You Know?

Portrait of Anna Dawes

A woman was responsible for the building of a modern federal jail at Fort Smith, AR, in 1888.  Anna Dawes, daughter of Sen. Dawes of MA, visited the "Hell on the Border" jail in 1885 and wrote an article describing its conditions.  When read in Congress, money was quickly approved for a new jail.