We've been doing a little sight-seeing each week, exploring the magic that is the Arkansas-Oklahoma border. Last week, we went downtown and went through the old Fort Smith Jail, known as "Hell on the Border" back in the day. I've been putting off posting on it in hopes that I would find time to write a wonderful and informative post that would include tidbits on Judge Parker, the Hanging Judge, and other bits and sundries. Like the surprising fact that the museum includes men's, women's, and unisex restrooms, and the bookstore includes tomes on topics like gender in the west and women in the old prison system, which put men, women and children all in the same cells.

Click "more" if you want to see the gallows - I put it there so unsuspecting folks looking for girlie pictures wouldn't be smacked upside the head with a photo of it instead. There were no ropes the day we were there, but they do hang nooses on the anniversaries of executions. And the executioner who carried out the deed was an ordinary guard who hung people on the side, and who never accepted money in return.

*Fort Smith is right on the Arkansas border that bumps up against Oklahoma. It's definitely on the Arkansas side, though, and therefore items located there do not strictly qualify as Oklahoma Discoveries. But since we stay just over the border and call these trips "Going to Oklahoma," and since I am never one to be bothered by teensy little facts that get in the way of my blog categories, I am filing Fort Smith in my Oklahoma stuff.