Northwest Arkansas Democrat-Gazette
Heritage festival aided by weather
Event raises cash to feed children
FORT SMITH — Sunny skies, warm weather and the chance for a bit of excitement lured crowds to downtown Fort Smith on Saturday for the fifth annual Heritage Festival.
“It’s a lovely day. We haven’t had one of those in a while,” David Lister of Fort Smith said as he waited with an expectant crowd Saturday morning for a firing demonstration of the 12 pound, brass Napoleon cannon at the Fort Smith National Historic Site.
Lister, who recently moved from England, said he had seen battle re-enactments in Britain, but those involved mostly soldiers with swords and spears. He had never seen real cannon fire before.
The cannon- f iring demonstration was one of several activities that drew people to the riverfront area of the old Frisco Station, Ross Pendergraft Park and the historic site.
The festival was held to raise money for the Community Services Clearinghouse’s Meals for Kids program. The clearinghouse expected to raise about $20,000 for the program through donations and festival sponsorships, said organization member Sue Robison.
The program provides weekend meals for 2,415 schoolchildren in Crawford, Franklin, Logan, Scott and Sebastian counties in Arkansas and LeFlore and Sequoyah counties in Oklahoma who would otherwise go hungry, clearinghouse director Rick Foti said. Robison said the program’s annual budget of $300,000 is fueled by events, donations and grants.
Besides raising money for needy children, the festival also is held to create
fun activities for children and adults and to highlight the area, Foti said.
The festival featured rides in horse- drawn carriages, covered wagons, a miniature train and a restored trolley car, which is part of the nearby Fort Smith Trolley Museum.
The Trolley Museum and the Fort Smith Museum of History across from the historic site were open to visitors for free Saturday. Admission to the historic-site museum was half price, Foti said.
For a longer trip, tours of the historic sites in and near downtown — which included the Clayton House, Miss Laura’s Visitor Center, St. Anne’s convent and Immaculate Conception and First Lutheran churches — were free on Fort Smith Transit System buses.
At the main festival site, 10-year- old Cody Venable of Rogers got the chance Saturday to feed a camel at a petting zoo provided by Deer Acres Zoo from south Sebastian County.
But he said the main reason he wanted to attend the festival was to see the gunfight by the Lawbreakers and Peacemakers re-enactment group.
Cody’s mom, Christy Harris of Van Buren, said her son’s enthusiasm for the gunfight came from his heightened interest in history this year.
She was just glad to be outside on a nice day, she said.
Volunteers in 19th century clothing were seen around the historic site, talking about and demonstrating life in Fort Smith during its early history.
One of the volunteers, Ray Shelley of Mena, portrayed frontier deputy marshal Paden Tolbert, complete with badge and sidearm.
Shelley was no stranger to a badge and gun.
He served on the Mena Police Department from 1980 to 1997, the last six years as police chief, he said.
He said he has been interested in the Old West all his life and jumped at the opportunity to volunteer as a re-enactor.
Crowds gathered at the stage in Ross Pendergraft Park throughout the day for cultural entertainment that included dances from different countries.
The McCafferty Irish Dancers from Fort Smith performed for an appreciative audience, as did a group of Laotian dancers.