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“Tales Of The Crypt” Researches Fort Smith’s Past

FORT SMITH (KFSM)– The Tales of the Crypt tour has been an interactive way to learn about local history for decades, but this could be the last year for t...

FORT SMITH (KFSM)-- The Tales of the Crypt tour has been an interactive way to learn about local history for decades, but this could be the last year for the program in Fort Smith.

Students like Jennifer Hardaway in the interpretive class at the University of Arkansas-Fort Smith chose a headstone in Oak Cemetery, and then spent the semester researching that person, in order to portray them in Tales of Crypt.

“I ended up picking Dr. Minnie Armstrong who was the first female physician here in Fort Smith and in Arkansas,” Hardaway said.

The students put the program on every summer, and it's funded by the parks department.

“Everybody locally knows that funding is tight right now, so strings are pulled tight,” UAFS history professor Steven Kite said. “Things are cut where they can be, so we're feeling that pinch here at Tales of the Crypt.”

Kite is the professor that works with the program. He said he believes Tales of the Crypt is essential in keeping Fort Smith's history alive.

“The understanding that the history and the stories that the cemetery has aren't permanent necessarily,” Kite said. “They can disappear if not take care of.”

The program is free, but donations are encouraged so the students can continue learning and teaching others about the people who most influenced this area.

“We have so many people buried here in Oak Cemetery,” Hardaway said. “I think this should go on for a long time because we have tons of people to choose from to tell their stories.”

Fort Smith's Tales of the Crypt is over for the spring, but you can go to Van Buren's program in October and hopefully see another one in Oak Cemetery next May.

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