This blog has been static for a while, yet still attracts readers and comments, so I'm going to begin to post here again when I have a story to share about Arkansas and its heritage that combines the wild West and the gentle South.
Near the Western border of our state the Arkansas/Missouri Railroad cuts south through the Boston Mountains, just about the wildest most rugged part of any journey made even today. This is the original route of the Frisco Railroad that first cut through these mountains in 1882. As a visitor, you can ride in an old restored passenger car from Springdale to historic Van Buren,. There the original depot remains and it's been turned into a museum. Inside is the teletype key which my grandfather used to send messages. When riding the train, remnants of the telegraph wires are visible here and there against the background of the soaring bridges of Interstate 540.
In Van Buren there was once a ferry across the Arkansas River to Fort Smith. When the Butterfield stage ran its route south from St. Louis, then west into California, the stage crossed the river on that ferry. Twenty-four days the trip took. Imagine that. A post about the Butterfield can be found on this blog. The background photo seen here is an actual shot I took a few years ago of a portion of the Butterfield route through the Bostons.
Not far to the West of that railroad lay Indian Territory where all the baddest of the outlaws fled after doing their dirty work in Missouri, Kansas and Arkansas. And down in Fort Smith Judge Isaac Parker held power over the oldest law enforcement agency in the United States. The U.S. Marshals Service was commissioned by President George Washington. These tough lawmen were sent into the "Indian Nation," oft times alone, to bring back these outlaws, and 252 marshals and deputies died in the line of duty. Many of the captured bad men were tried and 79 were actually hung. The original gallows was demolished after the final execution July 30, 1896. The gallows there now was built on the original site in 1981-82. The fully restored courtroom and jail remain there today in the Ft. Smith National Historic Site.
An anonymous book called "Hell on the Border" told the story of that jail which, because of its rugged conditions was actually known as Hell on the Border. Arkansas author Charles Portis took his famous book, "True Grit" from the information in that book. Marshal Jacob Yoes was originally pictured in "Hell on the Border," but later editions removed the photo at his request.
Created in 1817 with the goal of settling battles between the Osage and Cherokee Indian tribes, Fort Smith became the home of the federal court in 1872 and the Army lit out. The city became the last fortress of justice west of St. Louis. The coverage area these brave deputies patrolled was approximately 75,000 square miles in a land known as a haven for outlaws seeking to escape that justice.
Arkansas was equally split when secession began, but finally did split from the Union, making the state a bloody battleground between Federal and Confederate forces. The Southern influence in the state is evident in its architecture, food and culture. Thus we are both Southern and Western, which maybe isn't such a bad thing. The manners of the South mix with the cowboy and outlaw demeanor to make for an interesting place to live.
Readers might also like to visit my other blogs. For Writers; For Readers;
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