Fort Smith, Arkansas

Fort Smith is the second largest city in the U.S. state of Arkansas and the seat of government of Sebastian County. The 2010 population was 86,209. Fort Smith is located near the Oklahoma border.

The city was particularly known in the 19th century for U.S. District Court Judge Isaac Parker, the "Hanging Judge" who sent sentenced one hundred criminals to the gallows.

From 1967 to 1972, Fort Smith was represented in the Arkansas House of Representatives by the Republican George E. Nowotny, Jr., a geologist and businessman originally from New Braunfels, Texas, and later a resident of Tulsa, Oklahoma. Another Republican from Fort Smith, Carolyn Pollan, became the longest-serving Republican and the longest-serving woman legislator in Arkansas history. Because of term limits since enacted, Pollan's record may not be surpassed.

From 1962 to 1964, William L. Spicer, a businessman from Fort Smith, was the state Republican chairman. Spicer, a political conservative, and Winthrop Rockefeller, who was elected in 1966 as the first Arkansas Republican governor since Reconstruction, became involved in a public disagreement over the scope and future of the Arkansas Republican Party.