Fort Smith

It was HOT in Fort Smith! The temperature was about the same as Russellville, but the air was much more stifling. We went to the Farmer's Market and a non-fiction book sale at the Public Library. The Visitor's Center is housed in an old brothel called Miss Laura's. Fort Smith National Park celebrates the Fort when it was a military outpost and later when it became the key Federal law presence in the area. The Indians policed their territory, but had no jurisdiction over the non-Indians. Judge Issac Parker, known as the hanging judge, was the law and the US Marshals supported the law by rounding up the bad guys.

The basement of the old barracks became the jail for the hanging judge.