April 30 – May 2, 2021
A 4 1/2 hour drive along mainly backroads took us from Hot Springs, Arkansas to the Fort Smith area.
Sallisaw/Fort Smith KOA in Sallisaw Oklahoma
Our base camp for this area was the Sallisaw/ Fort Smith W. KOA. This was a fairly nice park with level gravel sites and, with the upgrades currently underway (a new section with concrete pads and pool improvements), will soon be a great park!
Sequoyah National Wildlife Refuge
After doing a minimal setup, we headed out for a drive through a nearby wildlife refuge known for pairs of nesting eagles.
Sequoyah National Wildlife Refuge was established in 1970 to provide habitat for waterfowl and other migratory birds and to provide food and cover for resident wildlife. It contains 20,800 acres (8,400 ha) on the western edge of Robert S. Kerr Reservoir in three Oklahoma Counties: Muskogee, Haskell and Sequoyah. The refuge was named in honor of Sequoyah, a Cherokee who developed an alphabet for the Cherokee language.
The refuge’s land includes grasslands, bottom lands, river bluffs, and hardwood forests. The refuge manages a cooperative farming project that raises wheat, corn and soybeans on 3,000 acres. Part of the crops are not harvested each year in order to attract more wildlife. Native animals include bobcat, muskrat, rabbit and deer. Hunting of geese, ducks and small game is allowed in certain areas and seasons. A special permit is required for deer hunting at specified dates.
About half of the refuge is covered by water. This attracts migratory birds such as mallards and snow geese. Fishing, primarily for bass, crappie and catfish, is allowed.
The refuge has issued a list of 256 bird species that have been seen more than twice within its borders. Hence, this is a popular venue for bird watchers.
wikipedia
Unfortunately, the Visitor center was closed when we arrived, but a ranger came out to talk with us. He provided a map and pinpointed locations where eagles are often sighted. As we drove through the refuge, we saw lots of cardinals, ducks, geese, blackbirds and a few bluebirds. We occasionally spotted what we thought might be an eagle soaring in the distance. Finally, we did spot a nest and an eagle sitting on a branch of a nearby tree (visible with binoculars but not close enough for photos). The only unusual bird that we were able to photograph was (we think) a Painted Bunting.
Fort Smith National Historic Site
The next morning we set out for downtown Fort Smith to tour the Fort Smith National Historic Site. Unfortunately the Visitor’s Center housed in the Barracks-Courthouse-Jail of the second Fort Smith was closed. That meant that we were unable to see the exhibits, “Hell-on-the-Border” Jail, or Judge Parker’s (the “hanging judge”) Courtroom. We were able to view the Gallows, the Commissary, and the first Fort Smith.
Founded in 1817, the first Fort Smith had a strategic location at the point where the Arkansas and Poteau rivers meet. Known as Belle Point, this rocky bluff allowed the soldiers stationed at Fort Smith to have a commanding view of the countryside and river traffic. Built by Major William Bradford and designed by Maj. Stephen H. Long, who as the army’s Topographical Engineer also chose the fort’s location, Fort Smith was a small log and stone stockade enclosed by a 132 square foot sandstone wall. Guarding its northern and southern corners were two square blockhouses, each 28 feet long and two stories high. Within its walls were a hospital, storehouse, provision house, cabin for the commanding officer, and a few barracks to accommodate the 130 men stationed at Fort Smith.
Although these soldiers and the fort itself were armed to withstand an attack, the closest the Fort Smith garrison ever came to fighting the Indians was during the Bad Tempered Buffalo Affair. The incident occurred on April 9 1821, when the Osage requested that the US Army provide their people with gunpowder to fight the Cherokee. When the commanding officer refused to grant Chief Bad Tempered Buffalo’s request, the Osage threatened to attack Fort Smith. The garrison responded by wheeling out the fort’s two six-pound cannons aimed in the direction of the Osage who had set camp on the opposite side of the river. Upon seeing the cannons, Chief Bad Tempered Buffalo and the Osage warriors retreated, and although war did break out in the region between the Osage and the Cherokee, the first Fort Smith never engaged in any direct combat with either tribe.
After fighting between the tribes subsided, Arkansas Governor James Miller and the fort’s commanding officer Colonel Matthew Arbuckle immediately began to negotiate a treaty with the Cherokee and Osage to restore peace in the region. The 1822 Treaty of Fort Smith reconciled most of the difficulties between the tribes and guaranteed them that white emigrants would not settle on their lands. With the Cherokee and Osage crisis under control, the army abandoned Fort Smith in 1824, and moved its garrison 80 miles north to Fort Gibson, where the increase of eastern tribes in other Indian hunting grounds had created tensions on the western frontier. Although transient troops and Choctaw Indians used the first Fort Smith intermittently as a supply depot after its abandonment, the army never maintained the site, and all that remains today are the fort’s foundations that archeologists unearthed in 1963.
Although the reconciliation of the Cherokee and Osage Indians led to the abandonment of the first Fort Smith, by the 1830s the army would once again return to Belle Point, this time to keep peace between settlers and the American Indians living in the region. Following the election of President Andrew Jackson, despite the promise of the Fort Smith Treaty to keep non-Indian settlers from moving into Indian Territory, westward expansion gained momentum forcing increasing numbers of Chickasaw, Choctaw, Creek, Seminole, and Cherokee out of their homelands. A result of the Indian Removal Act, this forced relocation was a painful and devastating experience for the eastern tribes, who, after facing hunger, disease, and death in their journey to Oklahoma, came to call their migration “The Trail of Tears.”
As eastern tribes and settlers continued to move west in increasing numbers, the American government ordered the army to reoccupy and expand Fort Smith to protect the citizens of Arkansas, which became a State in 1836. Established in 1838 by Captain Charles W. Thomas, the second Fort Smith was located 500 feet from the first Fort Smith. After seeing no Indian threats in the region, the War Department turned Fort Smith from a military post into a supply depot. Completed in 1846, the second fort had two officer’s quarters, a barracks, a commissary and a storehouse. Today, the commissary storehouse built in 1838, is the oldest building in the City of Fort Smith. Although originally constructed as a bastion, the commissary over the years served as a supply warehouse, a hospital, as residences for court officials, and as Judge Isaac C. Parker’s chambers.
After the Indian frontier moved beyond the Arkansas State boundary, the army moved out of Fort Smith, and in 1872, the Federal Court for the Western District of Arkansas moved in. Under its new management, the Fort Smith barracks became offices for the clerk, US marshal, and the US commissioner. A central room served as the courthouse, and the basement as a jail. In 1873, Fort Smith’s presiding Judge Parker, otherwise known as the “hanging judge,” along with the Federal Court, erected a gallows in the south corner. In 1886, the court built a new gallows on the same site that burned down in 1897. A reproduction of the 1886 gallows stand today at the site as a reminder of Judge Parker’s efforts to bring justice and order to the Indian Territory. Despite his reputation as a “cruel, heartless, and bloodthirsty man,” Judge Parker was a strong supporter of Indian rights.
nps.gov
Fort Smith Museum of History
Fort Smith Museum of History strives to preserve approximately 40,000 artifacts chronicling the city’s history as well as care for the 1907 Atkinson-Williams Warehouse, listed on the National Register of Historic Places, which houses the museum.
Permanent exhibits include the first-floor timeline that carries the visitor through growth and development of the city that grew around the 1817 military fort. The William O. Darby Memorial Room tells the story of the founder of Darby’s Rangers in World War II, today’s Army Rangers. William Orlando Darby was born in Fort Smith in 1910, graduated from Fort Smith High School and attended West Point.
The Boyd Gallery offers temporary exhibitions utilizing the museum’s vast artifact collection, as well as traveling exhibitions.
The second floor offers furnishings from the court of Judge Isaac C. Parker; an exhibit on the history of the building, Progress in a Small Frontier Town; an excellent collection of 19th century woodworking tools; On the Air, an interactive display depicting the region’s broadcast history; and an exhibit on African-American history in Fort Smith.
fortsmith.org
After spending a few hours touring the grounds and museum, we decided it was time for some barbecue so we stopped at Neumeier’s Rib Room. This restaurant is known for their award winning BBQ as well as head-liners who once appeared on their live music stage.
Rock legends Ted Nugent, Bret Michaels, Grace Potter, Big Head Todd and the Monsters, The Winery Dogs, Black Star Riders and Candlebox all rocked the Rib Room stage. Country and Red Dirt favorites such as Justin Moore, Corey Smith, Wade Bowen, Stoney LaRue and Randy Rogers Band also graced our stage.
ribroom.com
We enjoyed a really good meal here while admiring the memorabilia on the walls of the restaurant – truly an unexpected find!
Our Journey Continues
We only scheduled a couple of days here so we have to move on to our next destination in Oklahoma. Be sure to join us there.
