The Gallows, Fort Smith, Arkansas

The gallows on the grounds of the Court of The Western District of Arkansas contributed to the legend of "Hanging Judge" Parker; today's gallows is a reconstruction of the 1886 structure.

The Gallows of the Hanging Judge

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The gallows at the Fort Smith National Historic Site is a reconstruction of the 1886 gallows, seen here in a sketch made of the hanging of Crawford Goldsby, alias Cherokee Bill, in March 1896. The drawing was based on a snap shot taken against the rules by a young man with a Brownie camera. A newspaper artist made the sketch using the snap shot. The original photograph has long since disappeared.	Cherokee Bill Hanging	The original gallows was designed to hang six men at a time. It had no roof over it and no walls surrounding the yard. The lower part of the gallows was covered with wood planking to conceal the bodies of the hanged men but these were later removed to satisfy the morbid curiosity of the crowds. Hanging day always drew a big crowd with sometimes thousands attending, many traveling from as far as a hundred miles to witness the scene.
	Gallows at the National Historic Site
Closer view of the gallows with my grandkids at the National Historic Site	Eventually, the court decided that the hangings were becoming too much of a public spectacle. A new gallows was constructed in 1886. Up to twelve men could be executed simultaneously (although six was the most ever hung at once). A roof was constructed over the gallows so that the executions could go on in any weather and a wall was built around the gallows yard to limit the number of people who could witness the executions. To gain entrance, you had to obtain a ticket from the Marshal's office.	Tourist help show the dimensions. Three nooses hanging on the beam mean that the day of this picture was the anniversary of three simultaneous executions.
The gallows was along the wall of the old fort on the southwest. In the picture at right you can see part of the original fort wall with the roof of the gallows slopping above it. It was located about 150 yards west of the federal jail building.	Back of Gallows showing part of the original fort Wall and the Fort Smith History Museum across the street from the National Historic Site
The jail wing of Parker's court and the restored gallows at right		The view at the left gives you an idea of the location of the gallows from the "new" jail building. In the more than twenty years as a federal court with hundreds of men convicted of capital crimes, only 79 actually died on the gallows.