Fort Smith: Cultural Landscapes Inventory, Fort Smith National Historic Site
Regions 3, 4, & 5 Park Cultural Landscapes Program. 2018. Fort Smith: Cultural Landscapes Inventory, Fort Smith National Historic Site. Cultural Landscapes Inventory Report. 500389. U.S. Department of the Interior, National Park Service. NPS Midwest Regional Office, Omaha, Nebraska / CRIS-CL Database
Inventory Unit Description: “Fort Smith National Historic Site was established by Public Law 87-215, September 13, 1961, for the preservation of the original 1817 fort site and the second 1838 fort site; the second fort was also used by the U.S. Court for the Western District of Arkansas between 1872 and 1896” (GMP 1981). Fort Smith is located in Sebastian County, Arkansas. It is bounded by the Arkansas and Poteau rivers to the west and by the city of Fort Smith to the east. The 44.4-acre site is located within city limits, adjacent to a commercial and industrial section of Fort Smith. (NHLN 2016) Primarily resulting from topographic configurations, Fort Smith is organized into four general areas: “a natural lowland area along the rivers; a steep slope dividing this shoreline area from the First Fort site, which sits approximately fifty feet above the river water level; to the east a railroad right of way defined by a narrow ravine separates Belle Point from the broad flat open site of the Second Fort; further east is the Second Fort site which adjoins the Fort Smith street grid” (CLR 1998). The park resources are identified as “the historical grounds and the remaining structural features identified with the successive phases of military occupation and the functioning of a court of law on the eastern border of the Indian Territory in the late 1800s” (GMP 1981). Upon acquiring the site, the NPS focused on removing the noncontributing structures and rehabilitating the historic features. The archeological foundations of the first fort were stabilized, the Commissary Building was restored to its 1897 exterior appearance, the Barracks Building was restored to its 1891 exterior appearance, and numerous historic landscape features were reconstructed for interpretive purposes. In 1966, with the passage of the National Historic Preservation Act, the site was automatically added to the National Register of Historic Places because of its NHL status. In 1985, a formal National Register nomination for Fort Smith was prepared, and it was accepted on March 3, 1986. The 2018 National Historic Landmark Nomination lists one period of Significance from 1817 to 1896 covering the three periods of nationally significant use, First Fort Smith, Second Fort Smith, and the U.S. District Court, ending when the court no longer held jurisdiction in Indian Territory. (NHLN 2018)
- Type
- Published Report
- Authors
- Regions 3, 4, & 5 Park Cultural Landscapes Program
- Date of Issue
- 2018-08-01
- Publisher
- U.S. Department of the Interior, National Park Service
- Units
- FOSM , MWR
- Keywords
- archeology, Arkansas, Barracks, Belle Point, Cherokee, Commissary Building, courthouse, Expansionism and Imperialism, exploration/settlement, fort, guardhouse, Immigration and Emigration Policies, Indian Removal, Indian Territory, Judge Isaac C Parker, law, military, Military-Indigenous Peoples Contact, National Historic Landmark, Native American, officers quarters, Osage, politics/government, reconstruction, the Republican Era 1877-1900, Trail of Tears, U.S. American Indian policy, U.S. District Court, West Garrison Avenue Historic District