'Bring It Home' Campaign to Culminate With Arrival of Marshals Artifacts

ABF Freight is transporting artifacts bound for the planned U.S. Marshals Museum in Fort Smith, Arkansas. The shipment is scheduled to arrive at noon for a riverside ceremony on the future site of the museum.

The U.S. Marshals Service selected Fort Smith as the host city for the agency's new museum in January after receiving recommendations from a 10-person museum committee that had been studying the issue for the past two years. The city's campaign to secure the museum used the slogan, "Bring It Home."

When the selection committee visited Fort Smith, ABF pledged to donate its transportation services to relocate the artifacts to Fort Smith. "We asked the selection committee to let ABF 'bring it home' where it belongs," said ABF President and Chief Executive Officer Bob Davidson, a member of the Marshals Museum Board. "ABF is proud to be actively involved in the many communities we serve through our corporate efforts as well as the individual involvement of our 13,000 employees."

The Marshals Museum will be constructed in Fort Smith at North B Street and Clayton Expressway on property donated by the Robbie Westphal Family. Fort Smith also is home to the Fort Smith National Historic Site featuring the courtroom and gallows of Federal Judge Isaac C. Parker. Dispensing justice for western Arkansas and what is now Oklahoma from 1875 to 1896, Parker became known as the "Hanging Judge" for the stern justice he handed out to those who came before his court. Typically, the accused were brought there by the U.S. marshals and deputy marshals.

"Efforts by the Fort Smith community and the State of Arkansas to establish the U.S. Marshals Museum will move closer to fruition today when those ABF trailers cross the bridge into downtown Fort Smith," says Dr. Sandi Sanders, Marshals Museum project director. "A marching band, cheerleaders, and a host of dignitaries, including the Fort Smith mayor, members of the United States Marshal Service, and members of the Marshals Museum Board of Directors, will greet the trucks as they complete the journey from Cheyenne, Wyoming, to Fort Smith."

Sanders says artifacts for the planned U.S. Marshals Museum will be stored by the Arkansas Department of Parks and Tourism until the building is complete. "The museum will provide an interactive experience for visitors utilizing historical artifacts, various types of technology and special exhibits to honor America's oldest federal law enforcement agency. The museum also will serve as an educational center and memorialize the Marshals Service's past, present, and future law enforcement roles," says Sanders