- Fort Smith
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a city in W Arkansas, on the Arkansas River. 71,384.
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city, northern district seat (1852) of Sebastian county, western Arkansas, U.S., on the Arkansas River at the Oklahoma state line. An army fort named for General Thomas A. Smith was established on the site (known as Belle Point to early French explorers) in 1817 but remained operational only until the mid-1820s. A second fort was established on the site in 1838 (construction being completed in 1846) and played a significant role during the forced removal of Cherokee and other Native Americans to Indian Territory (now Oklahoma) via the Trail of Tears. It was commanded by General Zachary Taylor (Taylor, Zachary), later 12th president of the United States, in the early 1840s. When gold was discovered in California in 1848, Fort Smith became a supply depot and point of departure for fortune seekers taking the southern route across the plains.Confederate troops occupied the fort early in the American Civil War, but it was retaken by Union forces in July 1863. The fort largely fell into disuse after the war, but the city's growth was sustained with the arrival of the railroad in the 1870s. The U.S. Federal District Court for Western Arkansas was located in Fort Smith and had jurisdiction over the Indian Territory, which also had become a refuge for outlaws. Judge Isaac C. Parker, known as a “hanging judge,” successfully carried out the difficult task of enforcing federal law in the area from 1875 to 1896. Fort Smith National Historic Site (established 1960) preserves the sites of the two forts and Judge Parker's restored courtroom.Fort Smith is one of the state's leading manufacturing cities, producing refrigeration appliances, electric motors, furniture, heating and air-conditioning equipment, and processed poultry. Westark Community College (1928) is located there, and Lake Fort Smith State Park is to the north. Inc. town, 1842; city, 1851. Pop. (1990) city, 72,798; Fort Smith MSA, 175,911; (2000) city, 80,268; Fort Smith MSA, 207,290.town, southern Fort Smith region, Northwest Territories, Canada, on the Slave River, at the Alberta border. It lies below the rapids, midway between Lake Athabasca and Great Slave Lake. The settlement originated in 1874 as a Hudson's Bay Company post and portage point and was named for Donald A. Smith (governor of the company), who later became Lord Strathcona (Strathcona and Mount Royal, Donald Alexander Smith, 1st Baron). Fort Smith was the territorial administrative centre from 1911 until Yellowknife became the territorial capital in 1967. Fort Smith remains a regional government centre, is headquarters of nearby Wood Buffalo National Park (a UNESCO World Heritage site, designated in 1983), and is economically dependent on trapping and tourism. Two portage roads connect the town to Fitzgerald, Alta. (bypassing the Slave River rapids), and an all-weather highway links it with Hay River, on Great Slave Lake, 140 miles (225 km) to the northwest. Inc. 1967. Pop. (2006) 2,364.southwestern region of the Northwest Territories, Canada. Formerly part of MacKenzie district, Fort Smith region was created in the early 1970s by the territorial government. The region extends northward from the Alberta border to encompass Great Slave Lake and the eastern portion of Great Bear Lake and stretches eastward from the Yukon border to the upper branches of the Thelon River, north of central Saskatchewan. Largely a transition zone between boreal coniferous forest and Arctic tundra, it is characterized by the southern Mackenzie Mountains (west), the lowlands of the northward-flowing Mackenzie River (centre), and plateau and plains (east). Fort Smith region is the most populous and productive part of the Territories; its chief settlements, including Yellowknife (capital of the Northwest Territories), Hay River, and Fort Smith (the regional headquarters), are important mining towns. Fur trapping, lumbering, and tourism are other economic activities. American Indians (including Athabaskan-speaking Slave and Dogrib and some Algonquian-speaking Cree) and Métis (descendants of people of mixed Indian and European ancestry) constitute about one-fourth of the region's population. Pop. (2006) 32,272.* * *
Universalium. 2010.
