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Survey of Historic Sites and Buildings
Fort Smith, one of the first U.S. military posts in
the area of the Louisiana Purchase, was one of those making up the
"Permanent Indian Frontier" in the first half of the 19th century. For
nearly fourscore years, from 1817 to 1890first as a military post
and then as the seat of a Federal district courtit was a center of
law and order for a wide expanse of untamed western frontier. At the
fort, soldier, Indian, lawman, and outlaw played their parts in the
drama that changed the face of the Indian country; blue-clad troopers
marched out to carry the U.S. flag westward; and U.S. deputy marshals,
the men who "rode for Judge Parker," crossed the Poteau River to bring
justice to the lawless lands of Indian Territory beyond. Fort Smith
National Historic Site preserves the site of the small first Fort Smith
(1817-33), the remains of the enlarged second fort (1839-71), and the
building that housed the Federal district court (1872-90)all
reminders of the day when civilization and security ended on the banks
of the Arkansas and Poteau Rivers and when men were carving the Nation
out of the wilderness.
Fort Smith was one of a series of forts founded along
the frontier by the U.S. Government after the War of 1812 (1812-14),
when the normal pattern of westward expansion resumed, to protect
settlers, control the Indians, and foster the growth of the fur trade.
The first Fort Smith was established in 1817 in Missouri Territory,
which at that time included present Arkansas, on a rocky bluff at Belle
Pointwhich French traders had named La Belle Pointeat
the junction of the Poteau and Arkansas Rivers. Completed in 1822, the
first fort was a simple wooden stockaded structure with two two-story
blockhouses.
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Sketch of Fort Smith in 1865,
from the October 7 edition of Frank Leslie's Illustrated
Newspaper. (Library of Congress) |
The fort's primary mission was to keep peace between
the Osage and Cherokee Indians and to prevent white encroachment on
Indian lands. The restless Cherokees, who in 1808 had begun crossing the
Mississippi River and moving into present northwestern Arkansas, had
penetrated Osage hunting grounds. A threat of war continually existed
between the two tribes, but the Fort Smith troops were able to control
the situation. In 1819, only 2 years after the post's founding, it was
the scene of a peace meeting between Osages and Cherokees, and a bloody
war was averted when the Army insisted that the Cherokees return some
hostages. In 1824, by which time the frontier had shifted farther
westward, the garrison departed and moved 80 miles up the Arkansas River
to the mouth of the Grand River, where it founded Fort Gibson, Okla.
Small detachments returned sporadically to Fort Smith until 1833 to aid
in the construction of military roads and to attempt to curb the illegal
liquor traffic into Indian country, but the fort rapidly
deteriorated.
In 1836 Arkansas became a State and the demands of
its citizens for protection against possible Indian uprisings caused
Congress 2 years later to authorize the War Department to build a second
Fort Smith, a larger and more impressive installation adjacent to the
earlier fort. Construction began in 1839 but because of the opposition
of Col. Zachary Taylor, appointed the departmental commander in 1841,
and other military officials, work proceeded slowly. The Army ultimately
modified its plans and made the fort a supply depot. Completed and
garrisoned in May 1846, the second Fort Smith equipped and provisioned
other forts to the west in Indian Territory.
Fort Smith was also the base for the first two of
Capt. Randolph B. Marcy's exploration and military reconnaissance
expeditions. In 1849 he escorted a party of gold seekers over the Fort
Smith-Santa Fe Route and on the return trip pioneered the El Paso-Fort
Smith Route, which came to be known as the Butterfield Route and
replaced the more northerly Fort Smith-Santa Fe segment of the Southern
Overland Trail. In 1850-51 he reconnoitered the Texas-Oklahoma frontier
to select sites for an outer string of military posts to safeguard the
advance of settlement and protect the Choctaws and Chickasaws from
depredations by Plains Indians. This led to the founding of Fort
Arbuckle, Okla., and Forts Belknap and Phantom Hill, Tex., the first
links in a chain of posts that eventually stretched from the Red River
to El Paso. Fort Smith also provided minor logistical support for
Marcy's third expedition, along the Canadian and Red Rivers, from Fort
Belknap. During the Civil War both the North and South used Fort Smith's
supply and hospital facilities, but in 1871 the War Department abandoned
it.
That same year the U.S. Court for the Western
District of Arkansas moved from Van Buren to the town of Fort Smith,
which had grown up adjacent to the fort. The next year it occupied the
abandoned barracks building and subsequently added a second story and
jail wing. For the next 25 years, the town of Fort Smith was a center of
law and order on the frontier. The court had jurisdiction over part of
Arkansas, where State courts shared its sphere of authority, but its
primary influence and authority were felt in Indian Territory. Although
the Indians had their own tribal courts, these had no jurisdiction over
white men and no other system of law existed. Thus the area was a
sanctuary from arrest or extradition for the most desperate class of
criminals from all over the United States. Disorder ruled, and reputable
menwhite and Indianurgently appealed to the Federal
Government for relief.
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Old Commissary Building, Fort
Smith National Historic Site. (National Park
Service) |
In 1875 the youthful and vigorous Judge Isaac C.
Parker, who came to be known as the "Hangin' Judge," arrived at Fort
Smith and tackled the problem of crime in Indian Territory. For 21 years
he dispensed swift justice with an iron hand. Gradually, however,
judicial authority in Indian Territory was divided among Parker's court
and other Federal courts at Paris, Tex., and at Wichita and Fort Scott,
Kans. In 1896 it received its own judicial districts and courts. That
same year, 6 years after Parker had moved his court to a new building
near the fort, his court was dissolved. The passing of the Parker court
followed closely on the vanishing of the frontier.
No surface remains of the first Fort Smith are
extant, though archeological excavation has revealed its exact location
and stone foundations of one blockhouse and the walls. Visible at Belle
Point are the quarries that were the source of stone for the second
fort. The only significant remains of this post are the old commissary
building and the altered barracks building that later housed the Federal
district court and is now the Fort Smith Visitor Center. The former,
used by the Army until 1871 and now housing a museum, was built of stone
between 1839 and 1846. Originally intended as the north bastion of the
fort, before completion it was converted into a commissary. Except for
minor alterations, it appears much as it originally did. Soldiers
erected half of the second building in the early 1850's for a barracks,
on the foundations of a larger barracks building that had been destroyed
by fire in 1849. In 1872 the Federal district court occupied it. The
other half of the two-story brick building is a later addition.
Of special interest is Judge Parker's courtroom, in
the visitor center, which has been restored to its original appearance.
In nearby Fort Smith National Cemetery, established during the Civil
War, rest a number of Federal and Confederate dead from Civil War
battlefields of northwestern Arkansas, as well as the remains of Judge
Parker.
NHL Designation: 12/19/60
http://www.cr.nps.gov/history/online_books/soldier-brave/sitea6.htm
Last Updated: 19-Aug-2005
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