Howdy, y'all,We made it safely back to Texas, but first let me tell you about our day. We started the day in Alma, Arkansas, the spinach capital of the world, as evidenced by this statue of Popeye in the city park. From Alma we headed on down to the Fort Smith National Historic Site. Fort Smith was started as an army post intended to keep the peace between the Osage and another tribe, possibly the Cherokee, who were being pushed westward. Then as all the Southeastern Indian tribes were relocated to Indian Territory in Oklahoma, Fort Smith became important as a supply depot at the point where the "Trail of Tears" crossed into Indian Territory. Another important phase of Fort Smith was as the location of Judge Isaac Parker's Court. Judge Parker had jurisdiction over crimes committed by whites in Indian Territory and had a large caseload. He was sent by President Grant to clean up the corruption of the previous judge. Interestingly, Judge Parker was initially appointed as the Federal Judge for the Territory of Utah but asked to be reassigned. The ranger said that he had family in Missouri so Arkansas was more convenient in that way. I told her that a judge with Missouri connections would not have been a good fit for Utah. Judge Parker held court for twenty years and worked himself to death. The book and movie "True Grit" was set in Fort Smith and the Indian Territory with John Wayne playing a deputy marshall charged with finding outlaws in Indian Territory to bring back to Fort Smith for trial. The rangers said that the movie is being remade even as I post.
We then crossed over into Oklahoma and stopped briefly at the Spiro Mounds State Park. We just took pictures from the outside and headed on to Heavener to see the famous Heavener Runestone. The Heavener Runestone is a large boulder with old Norse markings on it. It was originally translated as a date, but now is believed to be a boundary marker claiming the land for a Viking named Glome who would have lived sometime between 600 and 900 AD. It was set in a very pretty spot, but not a place where I think someone would put such a marker.
From Heavener, we drove through the Winding Stair Mountains, where we saw a Bigfoot Crossing. Just to clarify, we just saw the crossing, not the bigfoot. Then we dropped down to Paris, Texas, which is the second largest Paris in the world. Texas is still the largest Texas. At left is a picture of us at the Eiffel Tower. Sorry for the slant, but the camera was sitting on the roof of our car, and the car was a little slanted.
After seeing the Eiffel Tower, we went to a local cemetery where our internet sources had said there was a statue of Jesus wearing cowboy boots. The cemetery was fairly large, you know the old saw about everything in Texas, so we just drove up and down the rows with the high beams on until we got busted by the police. The responding officer turned out to be very friendly and helpful, showing us the statue, which we never would have found even in daylight.
After our Paris adventure we headed on down the road to Greenville, where we spent on last night on Grits/Garter. Once we are safely home, I will try to add a few more posts to update y'all on pictures of things we haven't posted yet. ERH
1 comment:
I loved the info about Fort Smith because I have an aunt who was raised there. In the early 80's, my uncle and aunt were visiting there and discovered a furniture store that was going out of business. I bought a table, chairs, and bedroom furniture from them. It was the first nice furniture I owned!
By the way, welcome back. Wes and I spent the last few days in Southern Utah, and I was thinking of talking to Michael at Delicate Arch after our hike. I have such fond memories of my time with the young women and young men.
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