[title subtitle=”WORDS Dwain Hebda
IMAGES Dwain Hebda and courtesy U.S. Marshals Museum”][/title]
U.S. Marshals Museum reaches milestone, looks to future
Of all the materials used to build the gleaming yet understated United States Marshals Museum, perched hard against the banks of the rolling Arkansas River, the single most impactful piece doesn’t hold up anything, conjoin anything or serve any one of a hundred utilitarian purposes.
It doesn’t soar like the awe-inspiring main space just beyond the front doors and it has no touch-screen wizardry like so many of the multi-media displays in this space do or will have when finished.
In fact, if you saw this component in any other setting, you’d rightly assume it was merely a throwaway piece of iron – industrial shrapnel bound for the smelter before re-emerging as something more useful than the nondescript hunk it is.
But because it’s here, placed just so on a pedestal before a wall of honor comprised of plaques bearing the names of fallen civil servants touching four centuries, the wreckage takes on a new, almost sacred identity. One that every adult American, upon a mere first glance, understands.
“That must be,” you say, before the words dry up in your throat.
“It is,” answers Patrick Weeks, the museum’s president and CEO.
The iron artifact, a piece of the Twin Towers brought down by terrorists on 9/11, is a fitting diadem of gravitas for the museum, a 53,000-square-foot, $50 million-plus endeavor that honors the nation’s historic and often-overlooked police force that dates back to the American Revolution.
Much of what you see here is of promise – work crews scuttle about large unfinished spaces while completed nooks like the forthcoming gift shop, staff offices and state-of-the-art, climate-controlled artifact storage areas stand stark and empty. But the soul of the place is here, heavy and palpable.
In fact, as Patrick is quick to point out, the spirit of the U.S. Marshals has always been here in Fort Smith, more so than any other spot in the country. It just never had such a shrine in which to encapsulate it.
“Step back and look at the history of the marshaling service over one hundred and twenty years,” he says, his hand sweeping across the sentinel memoriam plaques. “The wall of honor has three hundred seventy-six names – marshals, deputy marshals, posse members, task force officers, administrators, staff.
“Out of that, one hundred and twenty-two of them died in Oklahoma, with the majority of those riding out of Fort Smith during the frontier days. So, this is sacred ground for the marshal service.”
Armed with this unwavering belief, Fort Smith bested more than thirty other U.S. cities for the honor of building the museum; topping locales with more cache, perhaps, but none more fitting. It’s been a long road in the thirteen years since, so when two of the elements of the place were dedicated last September – the Mary Carleton and Robert A. Young III Building and the Samuel M. Sicard Hall of Honor – it was cause for celebration.
Alice Alt, president of the United States Marshals Museum Foundation, says that joyful moment was a well-deserved pat on the back for the work done thus far. And while much work remains, she’s resolute about the depth of commitment the people behind the effort have to get it done.
“I think it’s important to note as we talk about how this building has become the amazing thing that it actually is, it’s absolutely because of leadership that went before us,” she says. “It’s directors, it’s donors.”
According to materials supplied by the Foundation, individuals have contributed thirteen million dollars to date and nearly that much from corporate sources. Nine million dollars have come from state and local government monies but not a single penny, Alice notes with pride, from the feds.
“The community has been unbelievable to this organization,” she says. “We’ve had anonymous donors give us six million dollars. We’ve had other million-dollar donors here locally. I will tell you, while this is nationally scoped, the majority of the funding we’ve seen has come from Arkansas and the regional area.”
Part of what will make the museum so special is not what it archives, but what it inspires in future generations through its extensive programming.
“One of the first things that I had to say when I walked in the doors here, and one of the things that I sing from the rooftops here, is that this museum is not about old things in boxes,” Patrick says. “We use artifacts to authenticate the stories, but this museum is about storytelling. I will argue that any museum professional, at least a history museum professional, that calls himself anything other than a storyteller is overstating what they do.
“We’re preserving history and the word ‘story’ is in that. The way you tell those stories has to be unique. It has to be innovative. It has to be immersive. It has to be interactive. It has to really drive you from your mobile device to actually want to go down and see what it is that’s going on.”
To that end, the museum will feature a number of cutting-edge technologies to bring the multimedia experience to life. Visitors will be able to listen in on a digital campfire conversation among marshals of various eras, see a frontier saloon come to life and experience modern marshals’ physical and intellectual skills testing.
Aside from the regular exhibits, which are still a year or so off from being fully funded and executed, Alice notes a broad range of educational programs for schoolchildren that further extends the legacy of the U.S. Marshals in classrooms coast-to-coast.
“The real key here is our mission, which is education. We are in over 500 classrooms in 24 states, reaching 13,000 children,” she says. “We currently exist as a museum without walls, which is powerful. The marshals through the years have upheld the rule of law. Sometimes they’ve been on the right side of history, and sometimes they’ve been on the wrong side of history. But every time they’ve upheld the rule of law.
“It’s hard for us, as a country, to have a conversation that’s civil and that has discourse inside of it. So that’s something we are absolutely mindful of and that’s the mission of the United States Marshals Museum, touching and reaching the future of our country. Outside of that, it’s telling the storied history of the United States Marshals.”
On a clear blue afternoon, a sharp wind whips the new landscape plantings as the razor roofline slices into the sky. Large as it is, the building looks sleek and deceptively flat, its profile suggestive of a frontier marshal squinting to the horizon against the western sun.
“You know, the key thing as you talk about dreams and whether they were pie in the sky is, well, isn’t that what America is? Isn’t that why we love Fort Smith so much because it’s reckless and a little romantic?” Alice says. “And in those dreams, did that not create the United States of America? And were the marshals not the first federal law enforcement agency to police that dream? Given that, I think it’s absolutely perfect that it’s here in Arkansas.”
“Fort Smith deserves this,” adds Patrick. “I don’t look at Fort Smith and see a frontier town. I look at Fort Smith and I see a city that has a frontier history, but that is one part of their history. We’re making history today, yesterday. We’ll be making history tomorrow across this city and across this state.”
