My Arkansas Travelogue - part 4 (final)

This post shows some pictures from Ft Smith. And actually, we stopped here on the way home from our weekend in AR, not the single day-trip.

It was one of those "since it's on the way, let's stop real quick..." kind of site-seeing moments.

And since it was so quick, I barely remember the details. There's quite a bit to see here and a day-trip to Ft Smith would be worthwhile.

At this point we were standing at the dividing line between Arkansas & the old Indian Territory.

I believe this was the old courthouse where one of those famous hangin' judges dispensed justice during those wild times when Indian Territory was opening up.

Yes, now I remember as I'm looking at these pictures. Above & below are pix of the jail cells from the outside.

I quickly glanced through one info sign that mentioned how soldiers labored to build this fort on the Arkansas River, only to be ordered to abandon it & move to Ft Gibson in Oklahoma. Sounds like the government, doesn't it? Some things never change!

I was expecting to see a real fort because the guy at the courthouse info desk said, "go out this door, take a right, walk towards the river to see the old fort."

What he failed to mention is that all that's left of the old fort is an outline of the foundation. DETAILS, PEOPLE, DETAILS!

If you want to see a real fort, though, check out Ft Gibson (the same one I mentioned above).

The grounds are very pretty and it's a lovely walk on the trail by the river.

Hey, more trains! I thought these were retired & sitting here for that old time effect. I'm standing on the tracks, taking various pictures and then we continued our tour. I hear the familiar sounds of a train whistle and lo & behold, there it goes on the tracks I had just vacated. Well, that was close!

As I said, one of those famous hangin' judges was posted here. Judge Parker. The gallows is still standing, even if the fort isn't.

Imagine being in that courtroom just across the yard and pronounced guilty. You saw Justice waiting for you right there.

 This is the text of a recording you could choose to play. It was vocally acted out, accents and all.

I stood underneath the platform for this shot. Kinda eerie.

A bit of metaphorical wisdom for y'all - Be a good person and avoid life's gallows. Heaven knows, there's still a bunch of Judge Parkers out there in this harsh world!