FORT SMITH (KFSM) – The U.S. Marshals Museum is set to acquire a historic photo collection from Mrs. Betty Wilfong, according to a news release.
Wilfong’s grandfather Joseph Killian assembled the collection while working for the Southwest Times Record in Fort Smith, the release states.
“Acquiring these photographs is a major step forward in building our collections and highlighting the vital role the marshals played in the old west,” said Jessica Hougen, curator of the museum. “We look forward to sharing these photographs, as well as our many other artifacts, with the public when the museum opens.”
“The Betty Wilfong Collection contains photographs of outlaws tracked down and arrested by deputy U.S. marshals in western Arkansas and Indian Territory in the late 1800s, including the Doolin-Dalton Gang, Ned Christie, Cherokee Bill, the Rufus Buck Gang and Belle Starr. It also contains a piece of wood purported to be part of the original gallows at Judge Parker’s courthouse, as well as a camera used by Killian in the early 1900s,” the release states.
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