We had the opportunity and pleasure to travel to Fort Smith late last week to attend a leadership seminar for Rotary. We’re a little embarrassed to admit that it was our first time to visit this particular Northwest Arkansas city, the third largest in the state both in terms of population, behind Little Rock and Fayetteville, and land area, behind Little Rock and Jonesboro. Our time here was mostly limited to attending sessions, but we did venture out long enough to take a look around the downtown area, notably the National Historic Site. We stood in wonder for several moments beneath the reconstructed gallows, where 79 prisoners were executed at the hands of “Hanging Judge” Isaac C. Parker in the final decades of the 19th Century. We walked around the rest of the site feeling quite somber.

We take great pride in the quality and taste of drinking water in Arkadelphia. Should you visit Fort Smith, pack water from home. Or drink beer.

That’s what we did. The Bricktown Brewery quenched a thirst for local flavor, and it was here that we stumbled (poor word choice, we realize) across the Hackett-based Coffee Times, an 11×17 weekly newsletter offered for free at several coffee shops, restaurants and other places of waiting. Lined on either side with advertisements, the idea struck us that we really should give this a try in the Arkadelphia area. While our readers appear to greatly appreciate the online-only work we offer, many along the way have pleaded for a printed product. We publish plenty of local content throughout the week, so it wouldn’t be difficult to fill both sides of an ad-lined ledger. The cost and time of printing and distribution is all that has stopped us so far. We’re definitely considering giving it a try.

Back at the seminar, we met many fellow Rotarians — among them was Bren Yocom, general manager of SWARK Today and our counterpart that serves the Hope/Prescott area. Our readers may soon notice that we share some of their news, when it’s of regional interest.

Leaving Fort Smith, we took a drive through parts of eastern Oklahoma to visit a viking runestone near Heavener. What we learned from our brief visit there is that, sometime between 600-800 AD, vikings made their way into the Ouachita Mountains, carving messages into boundary markers. This particular runestone — the most notable of its kind in The Sooner State — was a massive sandstone boulder. Apparently the ancient lettering claims this particular valley as one belonging to Glome. Some scholars have their doubts, but we thought it was darn neat.

Northeastern Oklahoma is home to numerous skunk farms. Some folks call them dispensaries. Wonder how their neighbors feel about the smell.

The feather flag signs outside one of these skunk farms flapped furiously in the wind. Made us think of a joke about why Oklahoma is so windy. The punchline has something to do with Texas and Kansas, but we’ll leave that to the reader to discover on their own.

Farther south, some miles from the western terminus to the Ouachita National Recreational Trail (which will forever be on our bucket list to thru-hike) we noticed a sign cautioning motorists that “hitchhikers may be escaping inmates”. Reading it literally, we couldn’t help but chuckle.

Back home, we felt obliged to watch the original True Grit starring John Wayne and Glen Campbell. We’ve viewed the Coen Brothers film a time or two. We prefer the original, as its dialogue is simpler to comprehend.

Overall, we returned from our trip with an overload of information about the civic organization, of which we are proud, new members. Much of what we learned, if put into action, will be beneficial to the community. We’re pumped about that.

“If ever I meet one of you Texas waddies who ain’t drunk water from a hoof print, I think I’ll … I’ll shake their hand or buy ‘em a Daniel Webster cigar.” — Rooster Cogburn

Joel Phelps is publisher and editor of arkadelphian.com. Contact him at editor@arkadelphian.com. Opinions in this column are his own. “If you’re ever in Oklahoma, you better move around the law.” — J.J. Cale