Long (1784–1864) to find a suitable site on the Arkansas River for a fort. General Smith had ordered Army topographical engineer Stephen H. It was named after General Thomas Adams Smith (1781–1844), who commanded the United States Army Rifle Regiment in 1817, headquartered near St. The US founded Fort Smith in 1817 as a military post. Soon after, the government sent the Pike Expedition (1806) to explore the areas along the Arkansas River. The United States acquired the territory and large areas west of the Mississippi River from France in the Louisiana Purchase (1803). The city government is led by Mayor George McGill (D), who made history in 2018 when he was elected as the city's first African American mayor, and a city Board of Directors composed of three members elected at-large and four members elected by ward. It became well known as a base for migrants' settling of the ' Wild West' and for its law enforcement heritage. Fort Smith was established as a western frontier military post in 1817, when it was also a center of fur trading. It is the principal city of the Fort Smith, Arkansas–Oklahoma Metropolitan Statistical Area, a region of 298,592 residents that encompasses the Arkansas counties of Crawford, Franklin, and Sebastian, and the Oklahoma counties of LeFlore and Sequoyah.įort Smith lies on the Arkansas–Oklahoma state border, situated at the confluence of the Arkansas and Poteau rivers, also known as Belle Point. As of the 2020 census, the population was 89,142. 72901-72906, 72908, 72913-72914, 72916-72919įort Smith is the third-most populous city in Arkansas and one of the two county seats of Sebastian County.

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