The Last Days

We arrived at Ft Smith National Historic Site about mid-morning. It includes the remains of two frontier forts and was on the edge of Indian Territory for years. This location also held the Federal Court for the Western District and was responsible for keeping the peace in Indian Territory and as a result has both a gallows and prison cells.

The park has about 37 acres and a lengthy riverwalk and path around the area but extensive walking is not something either of us is particularly good at so we headed for the visitors center which also houses the old barracks, courthouse and jail. The path from the parking area to the center passes the old gallows which has been restored to look very much like the original. Between 1873 and 1896, eighty-six men were hung for murder and rape. The sentence for these crimes following the Civil War was a mandatory death sentence. The park website has a listing of all those hung by date of execution and while there I purchased a book, Hangin' Time in Fort Smith by Jerry Akins which contains the stories of those hung. The book is also available at Amazon, Barnes & Noble and elsewhere.

The visitors center, the largest building, has fascinating displays of how the prisoners lived over the years. The former mess halls in the basement were converted into two large jail cells, nicknamed Hell on the Border. These were two large rooms where the men slept on thin pallets on the floor. There was little light except through underground windows and no ventilation. The caged area in this image was a small room for prisoners to meet with their lawyers. Half a bucket of water for washing was in each cell along with a chamber pot.

In 1886, the conditions were brought to the attention of the US government and funds were appropriated with a new jail being built in 1887-1888 as a wing and a second story on the courthouse building. The courthouse itself moved into new facilities nearby in 1890.

The upper floor of the current building houses displays of the later jail cells which were not much bigger than the bunk the prisoners slept on, usually two, an upper and lower, in each cell. The area has remnants of the cells and walkways and is very informative. Visitors can even 'try on' a jail cell.

The main floor has a diorama of what the fort was like and there are displays that commemorate the forced removal of the five southeastern tribes from their homelands into Indian Territory. If I could only visit one National Park site, this would be the one. And no, saying that is NOT influenced by the books or the bright yellow ball cap I picked up at the gift shop.

Hunger finally got to us and we headed on out, stopping at the Colton's Steakhouse in nearby Van Buren, Arkansas, for a great steak. Our choice was admittedly partly influenced by the small array of five or six classic cars parked together in the lower part of their parking lot. We did take pictures of them but I can't find them!While we were sitting at our table waiting on our meal, a large group of ladies from the Red Hat Society came in with their flamboyant red hats and purple outfits. Our waiter Brian excused himself for a few moments and returned in a red shirt to complement the ladies!

Replete with excellent steak, we headed out again, ready to get closer to home. One of the neat things about traveling like this is the many odd place names we encounter, one being Toad Suck Park, near Conway in Arkansas. We didn't actually stop there but I have since discovered that the park has 48 sites with electric and water hookups and we just might have to stay there if we get in that area again.

Shell Lake Campground in Heth, Arkansas, got us overnight instead as it was about 130 miles closer to home. Soon after our departure the next morning we were on I-22 which has large patches of kudzu here and there including whole trees swallowed up and hillsides carpeted. This is the kind of stuff that you swear grows if you blink your eyes.

The Sunken Trace. eroded by the many footsteps

We soon reached the Natchez Trace Parkway and stopped at their Visitors Center. The Trace which is 444 miles long has a long history as a major land route back home for the river crews who had taken their rafts down to New Orleans and for Native Americans, settlers, slave traders, soldiers, all sorts of travelers. We drove it for a ways but then had to turn around at an overlook as it was not headed towards home.

I-65 out of Birmingham was a nasty road, shake, rattle & bounce for miles. At one point there was a bad wreck involving apparently three cars and bringing out several ambulances and a fire truck. It had the north bound side tied up for miles.

That night we stayed at Deer Run RV Park near Troy, Alabama. It's very nice and has both an RV area and a mobile home area. This is our final overnight of the trip. Tomorrow we will be home! With that probability dangling in front of us we headed out early, around 6 am Alabama time. Lots of fog and kudzu and the stupid leveler alarm was begging for me to shoot it but at 8 am we crossed the line into Florida!

We soon got just enough rain to smear those bug guts all over the windshield but reached I-10 about a half hour later. Luckily the rain soon got heavier and managed to unsmear and even clean up a good bit of the windshield. We stopped for lunch at the Red Onion Grill at Exit 262, Madison/Lee, Florida, and had ribeye steak on Texas toast with onion rings!! An excellent repast as far as I am concerned. We've been past here on I-10 several times and I have always wanted to stop here but it was never the right timing. Finally!

We left there about 2 pm and at 3:45 we were home sweet home!!