Park to get bladesmithing school

FORT SMITH — The University of Arkansas Community College at Hope-Texarkana received approval Friday to operate a bladesmithing school in Historic Washington State Park.

“We know that bladesmithing is not the usual or conventional program of study that you normally see, but UAHT has a great opportunity to combine academics with history, art and entrepreneurship,” Laura Clark, the college’s vice chancellor for academics, told the state Higher Education Coordinating Board.

Bladesmithing involves using a forge and metalworking skills to make knives.

The coordinating board approved the James Black School of Bladesmithing and Historic Trades at a meeting held at the University of Arkansas-Fort Smith.

Black was an early Arkansas pioneer known as the maker of the Bowie knife, which became popular in the 1830s, according to the Central Arkansas Library System Encyclopedia of Arkansas.

While new for the college, the park site previously housed a different bladesmithing school. The Bill Moran School of Bladesmithing, founded in 1988 and affiliated with Texarkana College, moved earlier this year to the Texas college’s main campus.

Students of the new bladesmithing school, set to launch this spring, will be able to earn a certificate of proficiency in bladesmithing. Clark said students also can earn credits that will help them make progress in other degree programs.

The college will collaborate with Historic Washington State Park and the state Department of Heritage on the school, which will be housed in existing buildings at the park, including a historic wooden structure known as Stephens House.