If you’ve crossed the Arkansas River bridge from Oklahoma onto Garrison Ave. in Fort Smith, Ark., in the past decade, you may have noticed the unique, star-shaped building on the east side of the river bank about a half-mile north of the bridge.
The low-slung building is the U.S. Marshals Museum, which opened in July 2023 after 16 years of planning and fund-raising.
I’ve kept my eye on the Marshals Museum because I’m a Fort Smith native whose 92-year old mother still resides in the historic river city. So, I’m crossing that river bridge several times a year, and alway look to the north to check out the building.
But I had never toured the museum until this past weekend when my mom, Jean Stafford, and I spent about an hour-and-a-half working our way through the museum’s many historical exhibits, she in a wheelchair and me pushing her past the displays.
It was well worth the effort and the $13 entry it cost us as senior citizens to tour the museum. I want to share what I found most interesting, but first a little background on the 53,000 square foot museum that cost about $48 million — all from private donations — to create.
Fort Smith was selected as site for the museum in 2007 after a competitive site selection process among several hopeful locations. The museum shares the stories of the U.S. Marshals Service across its 240-year history, featuring interactive displays, photographs, videos and artifacts.
From my perspective, Fort Smith is the perfect location for the museum because of the city’s frontier history dating back to the early 1800s. It served as the HQ for many US Marshals and deputy marshals during that time who attempted to keep the peace and track down outlaws in the Oklahoma Territory to the west.
Fort Smith also is where notorious ‘Hanging Judge’ Isaac Parker dispensed frontier justice to many outlaws brought in from the Territory. You should also visit the nearby National Historic Site that Judge Parker’s courthouse and gallows still occupy.
In fiction, Fort Smith was the starting point for True Grit and Deputy Marshal Rooster Cogburn in book and film, as well as the location where the epic Lonesome Dove saga began with a killing on Garrison Ave.
While the museum location was announced in 2007, it took far longer to build and open than anticipated because of fund-raising issues that held back its construction.
Along the way, Fort Smith city leaders made an attempt to provide funding that would ensure its completion through a temporary, 1-cent sales tax. Skeptical Fort Smith residents soundly defeated the proposal in a 2019 special election.
In fact, Fort Smith attorney Joey McCutchen declared that the Marshals Museum would be one of several ‘white elephants’ he said the city has undertaken. Check out this 2019 article from the online news site, Talk Business and Politics, that outlines the controversy over the museum and proposed sales tax.
However, the money was finally raised through donations, the building completed and museum opened. Attendance has not met original projections, but I would say that the lingering effects of COVID played a role in that.
Today, the Marshals Museum offers an impressive collection and display providing historical education that shows how the Marshals live up to their motto of “Justice, Integrity, and Service.” The museum also serves as a community gathering spot for conferences, networking events, wedding receptions and more.
So, what stood out to me as I worked my way through the museum with my mom?
Well, I was especially taken by one wall that described the 1995 Oklahoma City bombing of the federal building and its aftermath. The local U.S. Marshals Service office was located in the adjacent federal courthouse, and marshals provided rescue coordination and then security oversight for the trials of Timothy McVeigh and Terry Nichols.
My only objection to that exhibit is the decision to showcase the front page of the Dallas Morning News from the day after the bombing. I was working at The Daily Oklahoman at the time, and our staff was fully involved in the coverage, which was reflected in spectacular front page photos and stories the day after and in the following months.
Beyond the OKC bombing, there was much more to learn about the U.S. Marshals Service from the museum visit. I found out that the Marshals Service was launched by President George Washington, and for at least a few decades it was the U.S. Marshals who conducted the U.S. Census.
There were displays that outlined the Marshals’ role in providing justice throughout the Oklahoma territory, along with stories that told of shootouts that resulted in the deaths of outlaws — and Marshals — along the way.
Most impressive was a room designed as an Old West saloon in which a virtual barkeep on a screen tells stories about U.S. Marshals in action during the frontier period. You can even learn more by interacting with a nearby computerized poker table. Then you can watch and listen to robotic ‘marshals’ from different generation talking around a virtual campfire.
There is room after room that carries you from the beginning of the US Marshals Service to modern day, along with displays and artifacts from incidents like Ruby Ridge and Wounded Knee, the Freedom Riders, Oxford, Miss., Selma and much more. There is even a video from a Marshal’s body cam of officers capturing a fugitive in Fort Smith.
As a sort of bonus, U.S. Marshals in movies and TV are showcased, as well as the actual badge worn by Marshal Matt Dillon in Gunsmoke.
Finally, we found our way back to the reception area, which features a large atrium-like space that is used for community and educational events. We also toured a special temporary exhibit that showcased the U.S. Marshals role in the aftermath of 9/11 attacks on NYC in 2001.
Mom told the receptionist as we were leaving that she was surprised by the depth of information that the museum provided and how much more it offered than she anticipated.
Me, too.
I didn’t realize that the history of the US Marshals Service spans most of our nation’s 250 years, or that more than 300 Marshals have lost their lives in service to our nation.
It’s a sobering, eye-opening educational exhibit that I would hope everyone would want to experience.
I’m so glad my mom and I toured the museum at long last. I shouldn’t have been such a stranger.
BONUS CONTENT: The following is perspective from my friend Ed Godfrey, who toured the U.S. Marshals Museum months before I paid a visit. Thank you, Ed, for sharing your thoughts with blogOKC.
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By Ed Godfrey
I really liked the U.S. Marshals museum, especially the Old West exhibits and history, but all the displays from each era were visually interesting and informative. The wall of plaques listing the names of marshals who were killed in the line of duty also was impressive. So many who were killed were identified not as deputy marshals but simply “posse.” I have recommended the museum to friends and would go again. My one criticism is the use of the huge front page display of The Dallas Morning News from the morning after the Oklahoma City bombing. Why wouldn’t you use the front page from the city where the tragedy happened, especially when OKC is just down the road from Fort Smith? The Oklahoman’s front page was even better that day, in my opinion, than the Morning News. As a member of The Oklahoman’s staff at the time, I found it a little insulting. Perhaps the museum couldn’t get permission from The Oklahoman to use its front page, but unless there is a legal reason, it seems like an odd choice to me.
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