Fort Smith used to be the wild west of Arkansas. Fort Smith was originally a military outpost that had as its main goal to stop the Cherokee Indians and the Osage Indians to go to war against one another, since the Cherokee had been forced into the Osage' land. The first fort was founded on christmas day 1817. The actual fort was abandoned in 1824 and not re-occupied until 1838 but in the time being a small town was building up around the fort. The second fort of Fort Smith was built in the 1840's because of the fear of that indians would go to war against the settlers in Arkansas. The fort was also used for storage and as a outpost for military expeditions, adventurers and gold seekers. After the civil war Fort Smith started to loose its importance and in 1871 the forts were abandoned but instead the US Court for the western district of Arkansas was moved from Van Buren to Fort Smith. One year later the one of the forts came into use again, but not for military. Instead it was used as a court room and a jail.

City Officials

Position	Name
Mayor	George McGill
City Clerk	Sherri Gard
City Administrator	Carl Geffken
Financial Director	Victoria Runkle
District Judge	Claire Borengasser
District Judge	Jim O'Hern
District Judge	Samuel Terry
City Attorney	Jerry Canfield
Police Chief	Danny Baker
Fire Chief	Philip Christensen
Sanitation Superintendent	Kyle Foreman
Building Inspector	Jimmie Deer
City Engineer	Stan Snodgrass
Code Enforcement Officer	Shawn Gard
Transit Director	Ken Savage
Director Of Community Development	Matt Jennings
Information Technology Director	Russell Gibson
Planning Director	Maggie Rice
Utility Manager	Lance McAvoy
Parks, Recreation Director	Doug Reinert
Acting Official	Victoria Runkle
City Director	George Catsavis
City Director	Robyn Dawson
City Director	Andre Good
City Director	Keith Lau
City Director	Neal Martin
City Director	Lavon Morton
City Director	Kevin Settle
City Treasurer	Lori Hopkins
Deputy City Manager/admin.	Jeff Dingman
Human Resources Director	Rick Lolley