Hell On The Border

Orville Crawford Word , my Great Grandfather, owned Trading Post up and along the Santa Fe Trail, first in St. Louis, then later in Fort Smith. Fort Smith was the last stop before entering Indian Territory(Oklahoma), it was along the Trail of Tears, and was a main route for the Butterfield Stage Co. between the east and west.

My father is buried not far from Fort Smith, maybe fifty miles as the Crow flies. Odd that my father, and my Great Grandfather buried so close to each other. Maybe just by chance.


‘Hell on the Border”, Ft. Smith, Arkansas

The scrappy border town of Fort Smith grew up slowly around the walls of a small fort established in late 1817 on a high bluff overlooking the junction of the Arkansas and Poteau rivers. The site was familiar to hunters and trappers because it was the location for annual trade rendezvous' between frontiersmen and Native Americans. Named for General Thomas Smith at the federal garrison in St. Louis, the tiny outpost was originally built to promote peace between the warring Osage and Cherokee Indian tribes.
Because of its unique geographical position - straddling the border between what became the state of Arkansas and what was known then as "Indian Territory" in present-day Oklahoma - Fort Smith by the mid-19th century was feared as "Hell on the Border," the gateway between "civilization" and the untamed West. Through this gate passed trappers canoeing upriver; Cherokee Indians on their fateful "Trail of Tears" journey; Forty-Niners seeking gold in California; the Butterfield stagecoaches linking St. Louis to Santa Fe; Confederate and Union troops skirmishing in the Civil War; outlaws seeking freedom across the border; and even cowboys and ranchers headed for Texas.
During this period, bustling Fort Smith attracted people who later made brief marks on the pages of history - future president Zachary Taylor; Civil War general Benjamin Bonneville; "Hangin' Judge" Isaac C. Parker, the man credited with restoring law and order to the area; his feared hangman George Maledon; outlaws Cherokee Bill, Belle Starr and the Rufus Buck gang; and "Miss Laura" Ziegler, an enterprising frontier "madame."

The First Fort Smith
On Christmas day, 1817, soldiers of the U.S. Army formally established the first Fort Smith. Isolated on the edge of the American Frontier, these men, under the command of Major William Bradford, were charged with keeping the peace between the Cherokee and Osage tribes.
Officially operational for only seven years, the first Fort Smith marked the beginning of Fort Smith's eighty year history as an agent of Federal Indian Policy.

The Second Fort Smith
The second Fort Smith was established by an act of Congress in 1838, two years after Arkansas gained statehood. Unwanted by the army, the fort was initially designed as a massive fortification. Construction of the garrison took eight years due to labor difficulties, budget overruns, and other reasons. When finally completed in 1846, less than half of the original number of structures were built. The fortification wall, intended to be twelve feet high, varied from six to twelve feet in height; cannon platforms at the corners of the fort were never completed, instead several were converted into warehouses.

The second fort gained a purpose in the 1850s as the "Motherpost of the Southwest," supplying military forts further to the West. The fort was a focal point of Civil War operations in the region, as both armies prized the facility and its location.
At the end of the Civil War, the post's operational days were numbered; the facility did not age well, and within five years, both Officer's Quarters were destroyed in fires. In the summer of 1871, U.S. Army troops leave Fort Smith for the final time

The Trail of Tears and Native American History
Fort Smith's history is strongly tied to the history of the removal of the five tribes, better known as "The Trail of Tears." The soldiers of the first Fort Smith were sent West to keep the peace between the incoming Cherokees and the Osage. The stockades fort was abandoned by the army and relocated prior to the forced removal. The second Fort Smith supplied the newly-relocated tribes as well as other military posts in the Indian Territory. The federal court for the Western District of Arkansas had the task of enforcing federal law in the Indian Territory in the decades following the Civil War.

Have a Good Week
Daniel

Song of the Week
You Tube has just become so big. You can get just about anything that has been recorded in the past at the website. Here is a original 1964 appearance of Johnny Rivers, playing "Memphis".