Driving Around Fort Smith, Arkansas in 4k Video

Filmed on Monday, December 4 2023, I drive around Fort Smith, AR to see what's going on.

The United States acquired the territory and large areas west of the Mississippi River from France in the Louisiana Purchase. Soon after, the government sent the Pike Expedition to explore the areas along the Arkansas River. The U.S. founded Fort Smith in 1817 as a military post. It was named after General Thomas Adams Smith, who commanded the United States Army Rifle Regiment in 1817.

General Smith had ordered Army topographical engineer Stephen H. Long to find a suitable site on the Arkansas River for a fort. General Smith never visited the town or the forts that bore his name.

For roughly a year of the American Civil War, the fort was occupied by the Confederate States Army. Union troops under General Frederick Steele took control of Fort Smith on September 1, 1863. A small fight occurred there on July 31, 1864, but the Union Army maintained command in the area until the war ended in 1865.

Two of Fort Smith's most notable historic figures were Judge Isaac Charles Parker and William Henry Harrison Clayton, also known as W. H. H. Clayton.

In 1874, William Clayton was appointed United States Attorney for the Western District of Arkansas by President Ulysses S. Grant. Fort Smith was a bustling community full of brothels, saloons, and outlaws, just across the river from Indian Territory. William Clayton realized a strong judge would be necessary to bring law and order to the region.

He knew that Isaac Parker was a strong judge, but Judge Parker had been appointed Chief Justice of Utah Territory and confirmed by the U.S. Senate. With the help of President Grant and U.S. Senator Powell Clayton, former governor of Arkansas, William Clayton was able to gain the appointment of Judge Parker in the Fort Smith district.

Judge Isaac Parker served as U.S. District Judge 1875–1896. He was nicknamed the "Hanging Judge": in his first term after assuming his post, he tried 18 people for murder, convicted 15 of them, and sentenced eight of those to die. Six of these men were later hanged on the same day. Over the course of his career in Fort Smith, Parker sentenced 160 people to death. Of those, 79 were executed on the gallows.

His courthouse is now marked as a National Historic Site, where "more men were put to death by the U.S. Government... than in any other place in American history."

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