The US Army also used Fort Smith as a base during the Mexican War (1846-1848). Many displaced Indians fell out of the march and settled in Fort Smith and adjoining Van Buren, Arkansas on the other side of the river. The army enforced the removal of these tribes to the reserved Indian Territory, where the federal government granted them land, requiring the tribes to live at peace with their neighbours and each other. The Cherokee called the forced march the Trail of Tears, as some of their people and the black slaves they owned died along the way. Remnants of the Five ‘Civilized’ Tribes remained in the southeast, and their descendants in some cases have reorganized and been federally recognized. They used troops to escort the Choctaw and Cherokee, from their ancestral homelands in the Southeast they were the last of the tribes to leave. In 1838 the Army moved back into the old military post near Belle Point, and expanded the base.
John Rogers, an Army sutler and land speculator, bought up former government-owned lands at this site and promoted growth of the new civilian town of Fort Smith.ĭue to the strategic location of this site, the federal government re-established a military presence at Fort Smith during the 1830s era of Indian Removal, primarily of tribes from the American Southeast to west of the Mississippi River in Indian Territory, which is now Oklahoma. A small settlement began forming around the fort, but the Army abandoned the first Fort Smith in 1824 and moved 80 miles further west to Fort Gibson. General Smith never visited this town or the forts that bore his name.Ī stockade was built and occupied from 1817 until 1822 by a small troop of regulars commanded by Major William Bradford. Long (1784–1864) to find a suitable site on the Arkansas River for a fort. General Smith had ordered Army topographical engineer Stephen H. It was named after General Thomas Adams Smith (1781–1844), who commanded the United States Army Rifle Regiment in 1817, headquartered near St. The US founded Fort Smith in 1817 as a military post. Soon after, the government sent the Pike Expedition (1806) to explore the areas along the Arkansas River. The United States acquired this territory and large areas west of the Mississippi River from France in the Louisiana Purchase (1803). Some colonial fur traders traveled the Arkansas and other rivers to trade with the tribes. The French claimed this area as part of their New France and La Louisiana.
They used the waterways for transportation and trading, and to supply fish and water for their villages. The city government is led by Mayor George McGill (D), who made history in 2018 when he was elected as the city's first African American mayor, and a city Board of Directors composed of three members elected at-large and four members elected by ward.īefore the European colonization of the Americas, this region was inhabited by various indigenous American peoples, attracted to the advantageous site near the rivers. It became well known as a base for migrants' settling of the " Wild West" and for its law enforcement heritage.
Fort Smith was established as a western frontier military post in 1817, when it was also a center of fur trading. įort Smith lies on the Arkansas–Oklahoma state border, situated at the confluence of the Arkansas and Poteau rivers, also known as Belle Point. The city also has a mutual friendship-city relationship with Jining, China. It is the principal city of the Fort Smith, Arkansas–Oklahoma Metropolitan Statistical Area, a region of 298,592 residents that encompasses the Arkansas counties of Crawford, Franklin, and Sebastian, and the Oklahoma counties of Le Flore and Sequoyah.įort Smith has a sister city relationship with Cisterna di Latina, Italy, site of the World War II Battle of Cisterna, fought by United States Army Rangers commanded by Fort Smith native William Orlando Darby. As of the 2020 Census, the population was 89,142. 72901-72906, 72908, 72913-72914, 72916-72919įort Smith is the third-largest city in Arkansas and one of the two county seats of Sebastian County.
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