Cowboy Up!

The residents of Fort Smith mark their storied past every May with Western Heritage Month. The celebration culminates with the Old Fort Days Rodeo, Monday through May 31.

In the late 1800s, Fort Smith was the frontier, the "wild West," a starting place for those heading out to homestead or search for gold. The city boasted a river port, a stagecoach stop and the federal court for the Western District of Arkansas. Crime boomed along with the community, and just past the United States border at the edge of town was "Indian Territory," a safe haven for outlaws. Judge Isaac C. Parker's job included jurisdiction over the lawless territory. His deputy marshals earned fame for capturing the outlaws and returning them to Fort Smith for trial. Parker's legend as the "Hanging Judge" grew as he meted out justice.

Today, the city embraces its past, but uses its ropes in a different way, lassoing livestock at the 81st annual rodeo.

"I think people can enjoy learning the history of this town," says Denny Flynn, executive director of the rodeo. He invites rodeo fans to come to town early and visit Parker's courtroom at the Fort Smith National Historic Site and the historic downtown area.

The American Legion sponsored the first rodeo in the area June 9-11, 1921, and a program from the event hangs in the rodeo office at Kay Rogers Park. He listed competitors from Idaho, Oregon, Washington, Wyoming, Oklahoma, Texas and Kansas. "In 1921, that was just unheard of," he says.

Leisha Gramlich, executive director of the Fort Smith Museum of History, notes a big purse for the winners then, but only a few fans came to the rodeo because they couldn't get there.

Traveling in those days surely was difficult, Flynn relates. Drivers relied on farm to market, roads, military roads and post (mail route) roads. In 1921, a federal bill passed ordering states to build and maintain a system of highways. Arkansas General Assembly in 1923 approved the creation of a 6,700-mile state highway system, according to the Encyclopedia of Arkansas. The state didn't pave U.S. 71 to Fayetteville until as late as 1929, Gramlich says.

"Can you imagine what the rodeo was like without these roads?" Flynn wonders.

Even in 1933, completion of the roads still loomed. A committee of Leon Williams, Alf Ellis and Homer Todd produced a rodeo as entertainment for the local meeting of Arkansas and Oklahoma highway commissioners. Citizens hoped the drive to Fort Smith for the meeting would convince the commissioners of the need for better roads.

The same men organized what became the annual Arkansas-Oklahoma Rodeo the next year, with Andrews Field ballpark -- home to several minor-league baseball teams -- the site into the 1940s, Flynn says.

"I think we're going to have a good rodeo," Flynn says of this year's show. "The thing about this rodeo is, it's the biggest rodeo that week, with top money, attracting the best cowboys in the (Professional Rodeo Cowboys Association)." The rodeo board adds $5,500 per event to the cowboys' entry fees for prize money, Flynn says. "So they always want to try to come here. And we're proud to be one of those rodeos where they want to come and compete."

Additionally, the four-state region hosts many smaller rodeos around Old Fort Days. Cowboys come to Fort Smith after competing in another rodeo, then head on down the road for another after their rides here, Flynn says.

But Old Fort Days is more than just a rodeo today. The 23 trustees of the Arkansas-Oklahoma Regional Educational Promotion Association offer many events in May prior to the rodeo -- all a part of that Western heritage. The Old Fort Days Barrel Futurity and Super Derby finals start at 6 p.m. Saturday in Harper Stadium. Country music artist Heath Wright and the Hangmen perform in a free concert at 8 p.m. Sunday. And the Old Fort Days Rodeo Parade and 5K Color Run begin at 1o a.m. Monday on Garrison Avenue in downtown Fort Smith.

The Fort Smith National Historic Site makes its own bang with an exhibit of cowboy mounted shooting at 10 a.m. and 3 p.m. Saturday at the site of the future U.S. Marshals Museum.