Best Web Design in Fort Smith, AR (2026)

Web Design for Fort Smith, Arkansas

Fort Smith is Arkansas's second-largest city and the seat of Sebastian County, sitting on the Oklahoma line where the Arkansas and Poteau rivers meet. Founded as an 1817 frontier military post, it became the rough gateway to Indian Territory ruled by 'Hanging Judge' Isaac Parker. Today it anchors a manufacturing and logistics economy and is home to the U.S. Marshals Museum and a striking downtown mural district.

AppWT works with Fort Smith, AR businesses from Livonia, Michigan, mostly online and travelling as needed.

About Fort Smith

Also known as. Hell on the Border.

History. Established in November 1817 as a military post at Belle Point and named for General Thomas Adams Smith; it began as a fur-trading center. It served as a supply hub in the Mexican-American War, an outfitting point for the 1849 California Gold Rush, and a division stop on the 1858 Butterfield Overland Mail. During the 1830s Indian removal, Cherokee, Choctaw, and other displaced people temporarily settled around Fort Smith on the Trail of Tears. Union forces captured the city after the Battle of Devil's Backbone on September 1, 1863; Judge Isaac C. Parker presided over the federal court from 1875 to 1896, sentencing 160 people to death with 79 hangings carried out; a tornado killed more than 50 people in 1898.

Local economy. The economy is built on manufacturing, trucking, and food processing. Top employers (2024) include Mercy-Fort Smith (about 3,413), Fort Smith Public Schools (about 2,424), trucking company ArcBest (about 2,020), OK Foods (about 1,900), and Baptist Health (about 1,850). Manufacturers in the area include Rheem, Georgia-Pacific, and International Paper; the city was long home to Baldor Electric's motor plant and a Hiram Walker bottling facility. Logistics firm ArcBest is headquartered in Fort Smith.

Culture and community. Annual events include the Old Fort Days Rodeo (running since the mid-1930s), the Fort Smith Riverfront Blues Fest (since 1991), the Peacemaker Music Fest, and the Arkansas-Oklahoma State Fair. The Unexpected mural festival has drawn international street artists such as Okuda San Miguel, D*Face, Bordalo II, and Faith47, leaving more than 30 large murals across downtown. Films shot in Fort Smith include 'A Soldier's Story' (1984) and 'Biloxi Blues' (1988).

What makes Fort Smith distinct. Elvis Presley received his famous Army buzz cut at the Fort Chaffee barbershop on March 25, 1958, now the Chaffee Barbershop Museum. Between 1907 and 1924 Fort Smith was one of the few U.S. cities to legalize and regulate prostitution in a designated district. Bass Reeves, born into slavery, became one of the first Black deputy U.S. marshals west of the Mississippi and is honored with a downtown statue. The Fort Smith National Historic Site is described as the place where more executions were carried out by the U.S. government than anywhere else in American history. George McGill became the city's first African American mayor when elected in 2018.

Fort Smith Landmarks and Local Life

• Fort Smith National Historic Site - preserving Judge Parker's restored courtroom, the reconstructed gallows, and the 'Hell on the Border' frontier jail
• The United States Marshals Museum - documenting America's oldest federal law enforcement agency
• The Bass Reeves Legacy Monument - a roughly 25-foot bronze statue of the pioneering Black deputy marshal in Ross Pendergraft Park
• Miss Laura's Social Club - a former brothel that is the only such building on the National Register of Historic Places and now serves as the visitor center, plus the Belle Grove Historic District and the 1882 Clayton House