U.S. Marshals Director: Fort Smith is ‘sacred ground’

Saturday morning (Nov. 9) was a time of remembrance and celebration as the public and dignitaries from across the country gathered near the site of the planned U.S. Marshals Museum in Fort Smith to dedicate the cornerstone to the museum's Hall of Honor.

The event, held about 2,000 feet from where the museum will sit along the banks of the Arkansas River, was held on Nov. 9 in order to commemorate the 225th anniversary of the U.S. Marshals Service and pay tribute to the more than 250 fallen United States Marshals.

"This is an important day in the life of the museum," Jim Dunn, president and CEO of the museum, said in a press release. "We have been working for years to bring this museum to life in its permanent home here in Fort Smith. To dedicate the cornerstone of the Hall of Honor while recognizing the marshals who have sacrificed everything is a testament to their lives and the dedication of hundreds of people who have worked so hard to make this museum a reality."

Dunn said the Hall of Honor had the potential to become one of America's most sacred sites, much like the Vietnam War Memorial and the 9/11 Memorial in New York.

Howard Safir, former associate director of the U.S. Marshals Service and the former commissioner of the New York Police Department, told a crowd of at least 350 that the museum and the hall of honor would do what no other person or event could do for those who have served their nation through work in the U.S. Marshals Service.

"I believe when somebody sacrifices their life in the service of their country, we owe them an unpayable debt," he said. "And this museum will be a little bit of paying that debt so that we never forget today and in future generations that these heroes served us and served our country."

Dustin Hotsinpiller, whose brother Derek was a deputy U.S. Marshal when he was killed in the line of duty in West Virginia in 2011, spoke with conviction as he said Marshals and other law enforcement are in a never ending fight against evil.

Hotsinpiller, who followed in his brother's footsteps and joined the Marshals Service following his death, said the dedication of the cornerstone was a way to not only honor his brother, but all those who have made the ultimate sacrifice in the fight against evil.

"They sacrificed for something that was greater than their life. We must honor those and that's why this museum is so important to us and to honor all, not just Marshals Service, but all law enforcement across the country from the small police departments that have one or two individuals to New York City or the bigger cities that guys go a whole career and never know each other," he said, joined on stage by his mother, Pam, herself a widow of an officer killed in the line of duty.

Former U.S. Attorney General Edwin Meese, who served during the Reagan Administration, also spoke of remembering not only those who had fallen in the line of duty, but all of the men and women who had stood up and answered their nation's call to duty through serving as a U.S. Marshal.

"This is going to be a valuable representation of law and order in America. And it will certainly serve, both for our own citizens and those who may visit from other countries, to realize that we have a means in place to carry out our justice system and to make sure that it is safe," Meese said. "And so our new museum will inform the public about this little known law enforcement agency and how our federal system of justice functions. It's absolutely critical that people learn about the Marshals as those who continue to join and carry out the constitution in upholding the rule of law and in making sure that the law is enforced properly."

U.S. Marshals Service Director Stacie Hylton, the first female director of the service, made clear that the Marshals Service was and still is about bringing law and order to the lawless.

She said that even now, in 2013, as she sometimes sits in her office in Washington or in a courtroom, she often recalls what it must have been like for Marshals trying to bring justice to the lawless Indian Territory of present-day Oklahoma and bringing fugitives back to Judge Isaac C. Parker's Courtroom along the banks of the Arkansas River in Fort Smith.

"I'm here to tell you that for a Marshal, standing here – for me standing here, for all of us – Fort Smith is like sacred ground."

Hylton said the western district of Arkansas has what many would consider the unwelcome honor of having had the most Marshals killed in the line of duty of any district in the country, something that forever links the Fort Smith region to the service.

"Those that died at the start of the nation's journey and those that have fallen since in the line of duty are why we're here and why we continue to move this project forward," she said. "They will all be memorialized and their stories told and we'll hold them in our hearts and their families for the sacrifice that they've paid."

It was not only law enforcement who spoke about how the Marshals Service and its history. Bill John Baker, principal chief of the Cherokee Nation, spoke about how the service had been a familiar part of Cherokee history, from the start of the Trail of Tears to the tribes’ eventual relocation in modern-day Oklahoma.

"I see that this museum here today is going to be the other end of the trail because the Cherokees, the Choctaws, the Chickasaws, the Seminoles all crossed here. So when they got to this site, they saw their new home across the river," he said. "So we've got memorials where we started and we've got (a) memorial where we were going. The Marshals Service is so intertwined with the Indian nations, it's not even funny. Our history, our stories, are the same as the Marshals Service."

And while the event was nearly perfect, it was not without one problem.

It was noticed by many after the unveiling of the cornerstone that Gov. Mike Beebe’s last named was misspelled. On the stone the last name is spelled “Bebee.”

Dunn said in a brief interview after the ceremony that the spelling was correct on information sent to the person doing the work. The museum staff saw a photo Tuesday of the finished stone but did not notice the spelling error.

If the error cannot be fixed on the stone, Dunn said the museum "will replace the stone. It’s too important to do anything else. … This is an error that cannot stand.”

Dunn said he hoped the media would not make a big deal of the error.

“We don’t want it to overshadow the very, very important ceremony we had,” Dunn explained.

Groundbreaking for the U.S. Marshals Museum, which will include 20,000 square feet of exhibition space, is set for Sept. 24, 2014, to coincide with the 225th anniversary of the creation of the service in 1789.

The U.S. Marshals Service is the oldest American federal law enforcement agency.