The U.S. founded Fort Smith in 1817 as a military post. It was named after General Thomas Adams Smith, who commanded the United States Army Rifle Regiment headquartered near St. Louis. General Smith never visited the fort that bore his name.

The Chaffee Barbershop Museum, located in the Chaffee Crossing Historic District in east Fort Smith, is where Elvis Presley received his iconic G.I buzz, also known as the "haircut heard around the world," on March 25, 1958, after being inducted into the U.S. Army.

The Battle of Massard Prairie was fought on July 27, 1864, when Confederate troops led by Brigadier-General Richard Montgomery Gano successfully launched a surprise attack on a Union camp, capturing prisoners and equipment. The battle exemplified the hit-and-run nature of the Civil War in Arkansas on the western border--a war of raids and ambushes involving small forces, not drawn-out, large-scale battles. Today, the site remains as Massard Prairie Battlefield Park in remembrance of the men who lost their lives.

During the 1840's, future U.S. President Zachary Taylor was commander of the military garrison at Fort Smith. His private home was once located on the grounds of what is now Immaculate Conception Church and St. Anne's Academy, at 13th and Garrison. A fire destroyed the home sometime before 1875, but what is referred to as Zachary Taylor's Chimney is still standing.

In his first term after assuming his post, Judge Isaac Parker (1875-1896) tried 18 people for murder, convicted 15 of them, and sentenced eight of those to die. Six of these men were later hanged on the same day. Over the course of his career in Fort Smith, Parker sentenced 160 people to death. Of those, 79 were executed on the gallows. His courthouse is now marked as a National Historic Site, where "more men were put to death by the U.S. Government ... than in any other place in American history."

Biloxi Blues, Neil Simon's semi-autobiographical account of World War II soldiers training in Biloxi, Mississippi, was actually filmed in Fort Smith and the neighboring Fort Chaffee U.S. Army base.

Out of seven "row houses" that lined Fort Smith's Old West red light district, Miss Laura's is the only house of ill-repute that stood the test of time. Now, fully restored to its original grandeur, it is the only former bordello on the National Register of Historic Places.

On April 21, 1996, a large tornado heavily damaged much of historic downtown Fort Smith around the Garrison Avenue Bridge, leaving four people dead. Days later, the damaged Eads Brothers Furniture building in downtown Fort Smith was destroyed by one of the largest fires in the city's history.

Fort Smith has earned several accolades in recent years, including recognition by Forbes for having the lowest cost of living in the United States--nearly 15 percent below the national average.

Three years before Tennessee became the 36th state to pass the bill giving women the right to vote, and thereby making it a federal law, Dymple B. Johnson of Fort Smith, Arkansas, became the first southern woman to cast a ballot in the United States when she participated in a special election to oust Mayor John Heskitt Wright.