Before delivering prisoners to Fort Smith, the deputy U.S. marshals would make a camp west of the Arkansas River, on the banks. They would tent up and hold the criminals until it was time to take them for their preliminary hearings. At which time they would be ferried across. Has anyone found any information on these camps of the deputy U.S. marshals?

I know just from secondary sources that the deputy marshals would setup a base camp while out on the scout after criminals or serving processes. However, I've never come across any indication that the deputies would hold up across the river before taking their prisoners into Fort Smith. The federal jail was often overcrowded but it seems like they always brought them in as quickly as they could. Escapes while in base camp in the Territory were frequent and it would seem more logical that the deputies would want to secure their prisoners in a secure structure at the earliest possible date. I did see one mention in a Fort Smith case file which mentions that prisoners were delivered to the jailer at the Poteau Jail...have never been able to confirm what this would have been. This was in the early 1870s (1872 or 1873). Not sure if Poteau had a secure holding facility at that time which might have been a holding point.