Collier's New Encyclopedia (1921)/Fort Smith

FORT SMITH, a city of Arkansas, one of the county-seats of Sebastian co. It is at the junction of the Arkansas and Poteau rivers, and is on the St. Louis and San Francisco, the Arkansas Central, the Midland Valley, the Kansas City Southern, the Fort Smith and Western, and the St. Louis, Iron Mountain and Southern railroads. It is an important wholesale jobbing center for the surrounding country, and has a large trade in coal, cotton, lumber, etc. Its industries include saw and planing mills, iron and steel mills, and manufactures of brooms, stoves, overalls, refrigerators, etc. The river is spanned within the city limits by four steel bridges. It has a United States court house and post office, a high school, a public library, a city park, several hospitals, and a national cemetery. Pop. (1910) 23,975; (1920) 28,870.