True Grit and Fort Smith: The Real Court Behind the Western

Since the late 1800s, the people of Fort Smith, Arkansas, and the Indian Territory beyond it have inspired books and novels, and in the 20th century Hollywood mined them for tales of danger and adventure. The movies' version is gripping — but the real history is just as compelling. This page, based on a site bulletin from Fort Smith National Historic Site, looks at the most famous of those stories: True Grit.

Background

Interest in Fort Smith's past grew in the 1950s, as fiction and nonfiction accounts of its federal court and famous judge, Isaac C. Parker, appeared. The court's site was restored and opened to the public in 1957, and in 1961 Fort Smith National Historic Site joined the National Park System to commemorate its military and legal history.

Earlier books had mostly retold the court's history factually. The stories of the people who worked for it — especially the deputy marshals — had yet to be told. In 1968, Arkansas-born author Charles Portis filled that gap with True Grit, first serialized in the Saturday Evening Post and soon published as a book. It quickly became popular, and a film was soon in the works.

Rooster Cogburn

The best-known character is Deputy U.S. Marshal Reuben J. "Rooster" Cogburn. He is not a real person but a composite of the men who served Fort Smith's federal court; Portis meant him to stand for the tough deputy marshals who worked for Judge Parker.

Veteran western star John Wayne was the obvious choice for the role. The novel gives Cogburn both an eyepatch and a mustache; Wayne wore only the eyepatch. His balanced, engaging performance won him his first Academy Award for best actor, in 1970, and his Cogburn remains one of the best-known images of a frontier lawman.

Fact and fiction

The film, released on July 3, 1969, had an immediate effect on the park: visitation that month topped 10,000.

• Executions. The film's hangings follow the novel closely, though less graphically than in Hang 'Em High, and mix fact with myth. The book notes that most executions were conducted privately, yet the film shows vendors selling goods to crowds — and repeats the myth that Judge Parker watched every hanging from an upper window of the courthouse.
• Titles. Cogburn is called "Marshal" throughout the film, but he was a deputy marshal. The U.S. Marshal oversaw the court's operations; deputies did the fieldwork of serving warrants and making arrests.
• Location. Portis argued for filming in the Arkansas and Oklahoma country where the story is set, but the producers chose Uncompahgre National Forest near Montrose, Colorado.

Charles Portis on True Grit

In summer 2000, Portis corresponded with park staff about the novel and film. In summary:

• Inspiration. He had been reading frontier memoirs and liked their plain, direct, innocent first-person voice, so he tried a fictional version built on a revenge plot — a common theme in such accounts.
• Mattie Ross. A woman at the center of a western was unusual then. Portis made the narrator an elderly woman recounting sordid events in what she considers a proper, formal style — while revealing, perhaps without realizing it, that she is as hard in her own way as the rough men she disapproves of. He simply liked the idea of a prim old lady telling the tale.
• Real events. The snake pit episode, and some other details, came from actual accounts.
• Research. By his own description, his research swung between thorough and careless. He read trial coverage on microfilm from the Fort Smith Elevator and other papers, read whatever books and pamphlets he found, and walked the ground where the story takes place — inventing what he couldn't confirm, though he still wanted to get things right.
• The film. The screenplay stayed close to the book; director Henry Hathaway worked from a heavily underlined copy of the novel, though some actors struggled with its deliberately stiff dialogue. Portis didn't write the screenplay but made a few changes and wrote the final graveyard scene, which isn't in the book.
• Locations. Producer Hal Wallis considered filming in Arkansas and sent a scout, whom Portis drove around northwest Arkansas and eastern Oklahoma; the scout thought Van Buren could stand in for 1870s Fort Smith. Wallis later said logistics ruled out Arkansas, and Portis suspected Hathaway talked him into Colorado.

Questions to consider

Like any movie, True Grit is mainly entertainment, but as a historical drama it carries many messages — and misconceptions — about the past. While watching, consider:

• The film was promoted as a "Brand New Brand of American Frontier Story." How does it differ from the traditional western?
• How does it stereotype "frontier justice"?
• It is set in Arkansas and Indian Territory but was filmed in Colorado. What difference does that make?
• What does its portrayal of executions say about capital punishment?
• How does it portray Judge Parker — as sympathetic and fair?
• The endings of the film and the novel differ slightly. Which works better?

Sources

• National Park Service, Fort Smith National Historic Site: "Fort Smith Goes to the Movies: True Grit (Site Bulletin)." Charles Portis's remarks to park staff are summarized here, not quoted.