November 2, 2009: Arkansas

Today was "Arkansas Day." My hotel for the previous night was in Joplin, MO. From there, I hopped on US 71 and headed towards Van Buren, AR. I had driven US 71 in the dark in 2007 coming from Fayetteville, AR to Wichita, KS. So, it was nice to see it in the light this time. The road becomes I-540 and south of Fayetteville are the beautiful Boston Mountains. The scenery was absolutely beautiful. I wish I had been here a few weeks before when the leaves changed colors. It would have been spectacular.


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I picked the Van Buren/Fort Smith area for a couple of reasons. I had applied for a job and gotten a phone interview last September for a job in Fort Smith. Needless to say, I did not get the job. But, I was curious about the area. Van Buren is also interesting to me because it is named after Martin Van Buren (the 8th president) when he was Secretary of State. I'm a distant cousin to Martin Van Buren.

The city of Van Buren is fairly small but has a cute Victorian downtown with free parking. There are some nice little shops in the area. I took a few pictures which will be posted in the next couple of days (along with the other pictures). I had some ice cream at an old fashioned ice cream parlor. I talked with the proprietor for a while about life in Arkansas. It's definitely a lot slower and people are generally very friendly. But, Walmart is becoming huge in the state. Their headquarters are in Bentonville, about 70 miles north of Van Buren. Walmart is apparently going to be installing clinics in their stores soon.

I next went to Fort Smith. This is next door to Van Buren but in the next county. It is the second largest city in Arkansas, after Little Rock. It's a little large for me. The downtown looked nice, but is definitely very busy. If you want to take a left turn at any intersection, be prepared to sit through multiple cycles of red lights.

I also visited the actual Fort Smith historical military outpost. The city grew around the fort. It is now a national park. The fort was used prior to the Civil War as the western outpost. Back then, places like Arkansas were considered the "Southwest." In the Civil War, it was also used for military purposes, changing hands from Union to Confederate control multiple times. Arkansas was a Confederate state, but the Union still managed to control the fort some of the time during the way. Soldiers from either side would put on uniforms from the opposing force to sabotage the other side. After being caught, they were hung while standing on their coffins.

Prior to the Mexican War, Zachary Taylor (later the 12th president) was stationed at Fort Smith. While Taylor's home in Louisville, KY still exists, it is privately owned and is not open for tours. I really didn't know this going in, but now I finally can check Taylor off the list.

The fort was also used as a supply depot and a base for troops that would police what was called "Indian Territory." In modern times, that place is known as the state of Oklahoma. After being forced out of their lands in the east, Native Americans were pushed into "Indian Territory." Putting various tribes together led to wars and thus the need to police them. What was also interesting to note is that some Native Americans kept slaves. They were divided during the Civil War with some supporting the Union and others supporting the Confederacy.

After the Civil War, it became a disgusting prison (referred to as "hell on earth" for the horrible unsanitary conditions) and a Federal District Court. Prisoners were kept in the basement while the courtroom was two floors above. The self guided tour shows the courtroom and the prison. There was also an outside area for hanging executions and another for the supply depot.

Immediately after leaving the city limits of Fort Smith, one is in Oklahoma. My destination for the evening was Oklahoma City. I had about a three hour drive on I-40.


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Oklahoma has a reputation (at least in the Midwest) for having some of the worst roads in the country. Having seen 46 states now, I think the reputation is well deserved. The western side of Nebraska is equally bad (the populated eastern side has well maintained roads). Anyway, I was not looking forward to this drive. Significant portions of the road were okay, but when it was bad, it was very bad. There was quite a bit of roadwork going on, as there always seems to be in Oklahoma. It just seems like nothing gets better. Anyway, despite all of this, I never expected to see what I saw in the road that night: a huge stuffed chair. It was laying right on the broken line, partially in each lane. With a speed limit of 70 and driving at night, it's surprising nobody hit it. Everyone on the road (including myself) had to swerve.