Arkansas

August 6, 2006

Clinton Library



There are some places that we have visited that have been almost total surprises, not that we had a negative opinion of Arkansas, just that we thought of it more as one of those places you drive through to get to somewhere else. We loved Hot Springs and found our next two Arkansas stops, Little Rock & Fort Smith to be pleasant surprises as well.

In Little Rock, we stopped first at the sparkly new Clinton Presidential Center & Library. This amazing, beautiful building is located in a former industrial site right on the banks of the Arkansas River a short walk from the River Front area of downtown Little Rock. The Library contains almost all of the Presidential papers, objects and mementos you would expect, plus it has amazingly accurate reproductions of the Oval Office and Cabinet Room of the White House. It’s sort of strange to be visiting a museum about such recent events, especially when most of the historic sites we have seen date from well before our time. After touring the library, we walked along the river to the wonderful renovated riverfront section of Little Rock, complete with restaurants, art galleries and shopping it is a wonderful little area.

Oval Office

We got caught in a wicked thunderstorm on the way to our next historic site. Complete with flash floods, high winds and tons of lightning strikes. It was really exciting. Thankfully it had let up when we arrived at Little Rock Central High. The site of one of the most important moments of the civil rights movement, Central High is now a National Historic Site. Though still an operating high school, there is a visitor center run by the National Park Service across the street that tells the tale of the 9 African- American students who first integrated the all-white school in 1957 and of the resistance that culminated in the National Guard being called in to allow them to attend.

Central High School

After leaving Little Rock and driving through yet more storms, we arrived in Fort Smith. Fort Smith is an old frontier Fort where Judge Issac Parker presided over the court that oversaw the frontier outlaws with the help of a team of US Marshals. Known as “The Hanging Judge”, Parker sent almost 100 men to the gallows. The site was also a point along the Trail of Tears which was the trail along which the Cherokee Indians were forcibly removed and forced to march from their homes to reservations in the west. In addition to the fort itself, we stopped at the towns visitor center, Miss Laura’s is the only bordello on the National Register of Historic Places and it now restored and greets visitor’s to the small river town.

Gallows

Judge Parker's Court



Visit these Web-Sites:

Little Rock Central High

Clinton Library

Fort Smith