Formal groundbreaking has been held in Fort Smith for a U.S. Marshals Museum on the banks of the Arkansas River overlooking Oklahoma.
Federal, state, tribal and local officials that included U.S. Sens. Mark Pryor and John Boozman; Rep. Steve Womack; Gov. Mike Beebe; Principal Chief George Tiger and marshals services officials were among the estimated crowd of 1,000 that turned out for Wednesday's ceremony.
The groundbreaking took place on the 225th anniversary of the creation of the U.S. Marshals Service.
Fort Smith was selected as the site for the museum because of its frontier history.
The museum is to be built on the banks of the river overlooking where the marshals patrolled in what was then the Indian Territory that is now Oklahoma.
