NEWS

February 16, 2026 -- Washington Cemetery -- Fort Smith, AR Six inches of snow stood there just three weeks before, but on the third Monday in February - Daisy Gaston Bates Day in Arkansas - the weather at Fort Smith's Washington Cemetery was 70° with a cool breeze and bright sunshine all day. We sometimes venture beyond our building downtown to see how folks in our region - Arkansas's Sebastian, Crawford, and Franklin Counties and Oklahoma's Sequoyah and Le Flore counties