As we traverse from Tulsa to Fort Smith, Arkansas the scenery begins to noticeably chage; at last we see more vegetation and even some woodlands. Being further south the trees still have their autumn foliage and the yellows, reds and oranges – although it is a grey and windy day so not the best for appreciating these. The wind also provide some other challenges. Since we bought our roof box for the van we now present a sizeable target for the wind and on days like this driving is a bit like taming a bucking bronco. Makes the journey all the more tiring for the driver!
It is mid afternoon when we arrive at Fort Smith and we decide to fill the time up by visiting the Fort Smith National Monument. This is the site of a frontier fort constructed in 1817 on the banks of the Arkansas River to control the Indian Territories which bordered Arkansas (what is now Oklahoma and Kansas). The growth in white populations on the East Coast increasingly put pressure for land so in 1830 President Andrew Jackson initiated the Indian Removal Act. Tribes from the East – Cherokees, Chickasaws, Choctaws, 
Creeks, and Seminoles were initially put in to concentration camps and were then then forcibly bought together in a new land many miles from their homes. Many Indians suffered greatly during these evictions and many died in transit to their new territories – and the routes traveled by the poor people is now called the “Trail of Tears”. The more one hears of the suffering of these tribes (which still continues in many ways) the more shameful it all seems – one expects the Government could do more to improve the plight of these people if it so desired. As time moved on these Indian Territories, being sovereign to the Indians, became a haven for criminals from all races and creeds. To meet this new challenge the role of Fort Smith became more of law enforcement than fighting civil unrest. The former barracks became a prison, a most unpleasant one at that, earning the name “Hell on the Border”. Running this jurisdiction was Judge Issac Parker (known as the hanging judge) a tough but fair man who recruited some hard, brave men as US Marshalls to cross into Indian Territory and retrieve criminals and bring them back to face justice, which they did pretty successfully. All this story was very well presented throughout the museum – which is the old prison / barracks of Fort Smith. They even have grimly reconstructed the gallows – which could hang about 15 at a time – some 160 met their deaths this way.You can’t say that Jack and Emily are not getting a broad education.
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