Museum set to offer more in ’24
CEO: Expanded programming, temporary exhibits, advertising push planned
FORT SMITH — The U.S. Marshals Museum is preparing to expand both what it has to offer and its investment in advertising this year, its first full year of operation.
Ben Johnson, the museum’s president and chief executive officer, said the museum will have more educational programming in 2024 and 2025 than in 2023, along with events and activities for families. It will also have some new, temporary exhibits on display later this year.
Johnson estimated the Marshals Museum, located at 789 Riverfront Drive along the Arkansas River, had slightly more than 35,000 visitors from when it opened to the public July 1 through the end of the year. He said 65% to 70% of that number came from outside a 50-mile radius of the museum building, including all 50 states and more than a dozen foreign countries.
Johnson explained the museum was pleasantly surprised with the turnout because it didn’t spend a lot of money on advertising and promotion before the opening.
The museum expects annual attendance of 125,576 people during a typical year based on data provided by Leisure Development Partners, a consulting practice based in London, via a feasibility study in 2018. The first couple of years after the opening are expected to over-perform in comparison.
The Arkansas Economic Development Institute used the information in the feasibility study to estimate the museum and related tourist expenditures will have an annual impact of $13 million to $22 million on Sebastian County. It’s also projected to result in an additional 286 full-time-equivalent jobs in the county.
Johnson said the museum thinks the projected attendance figures are achievable in 2024 and 2025, which will involve spending what it needs to spend on marketing and promotion while working with the Fort Smith Convention & Visitors Bureau and the state.
Ashleigh Bachert, executive director of the Fort Smith Convention & Visitors Bureau, said the bureau and museum have to work closely because the museum is one of Fort Smith’s newest attractions, as well as a highlight unique to the city.
Bachert said Thursday the bureau and museum will work to leverage the museum as a piece of what Fort Smith can provide to draw more residents from markets such as Texas and Chicago. The two parties will use additional pushes on social media and focus on travel writers with an interest in the U.S. Marshals Service, among other marketing and promotional tactics.
Johnson has said the museum has about 18,000 square feet of permanent exhibit space. The museum website states it includes five galleries concerning the Marshals Service and its history: To Be a Marshal, the Campfire, Frontier Marshals, a Changing Nation and Modern Marshals.
The museum is also home to the Willard and Pat Walker National Learning Center — a learning and teaching hub
for on-site and online educational experiences — and the Samuel M. Sicard Hall of Honor, which honors marshals who died while serving the nation, according to the museum. Development of the museum began in 2007.
Johnson has said the museum also has a 4,000-squarefoot gallery for temporary, rotating exhibits. He estimated Wednesday it will hold its first temporary exhibit in mid-April, though more exact details will be announced at a later date.
Perhaps the highest profile initiative the museum plans to start this year will be a series of public programs in which the subject matter is determined by current and former directors of the Marshals Service, he said.
Among those who visited the museum for the first time Wednesday were Owen Farrell and Ann Dahlke of Bella Vista.
Farrell said he and Dahlke wanted to see the museum after waiting for it to open for years. He said the architecture of the building was “stunning” and the museum itself provides a very informational, thorough experience concerning the Marshals Service.
Dahlke said she previously didn’t understand anything about the Marshals Service outside of what she had seen on television. Her visit to the museum taught her what the marshals really do and what they’re all about, she said.
“I have more respect for them,” Dahlke said.
Farrell said he thought the museum would be improved with a larger section dedicated to Bass Reeves.
Reeves was a former slave who became one of the first Black deputy U.S. marshals to operate out of the Western District of Arkansas in 1875. His life formed the basis of a limited series biopic — “Lawmen: Bass Reeves” — released on the Paramount+ streaming service late last year.
Farrell and Dahlke both said they would consider visiting the museum again.