Perhaps nothing brought Fort Smith's reputation as the rough-and-tumble frontier to the Old West quite like the novel "True Grit" and the two movies made from the story.
“True Grit,” a western adventure novel by Arkansan Charles Portis, tells the story of Arkansas farm girl Mattie Ross avenging her father’s murder with the help of Deputy U.S. Marshal Reuben “Rooster” Cogburn and Texas Ranger LaBoeuf. The novel, set in 1873, begins in Fort Smith and follows the three characters into Oklahoma as they search for Tom Chaney, the man who killed Ross’ father.
“True Grit” was published in 1968 and then made into a film that was released the following year. The story regained the public's focus when the movie was remade by the Coen Brothers and released in 2010.
In Fort Smith, businesses like True Grit Tattooing and True Grit Running show off the city’s ties to the story. Fort Smith National Historic Site Volunteer Jerry Akins said visitors frequently ask him about the story’s events and characters.
“It’s just ‘True Grit’ all over the place,” Akins said.
Charles Portis’ brother, Jonathan Portis, said Charles “spent a lot of time in Fort Smith” researching the town and its events for his novel. In a letter to the Fort Smith National Historic Site in 2000, Charles Portis explained that his research included reading newspaper accounts of Judge Isaac Parker’s public trials, looking through pamphlets and books that detailed the time period and walking to sites where he envisioned the story’s events taking place.
Charles Portis said that if he was unable to find the facts, he would make something up.
“I wasn’t writing a treatise, only a novel,” he says in his letter. “Still, you like to get things right.”
In his letter, Charles Portis said many events in “True Grit,” including a rattlesnake biting Ross after she falls into a pit, are based off of similar historic events that occurred in Fort Smith. He also said his inspiration for “Rooster” Cogburn — arguably the novel’s most prominent figure — came through his firsthand research.
Cogburn, who is sought out by Mattie Ross to execute her mission, was cast by Charles Portis as a no-nonsense U.S. Marshal operating out of Fort Smith. Cogburn's work lines up with history — U.S. Marshals operated out of Fort Smith from 1851-1896, when the town was Arkansas' Western District headquarters.
Like in the novel, U.S. Marshals sometimes ventured from Fort Smith into what is now Oklahoma to bring back fugitives, according to the Encyclopedia of Arkansas History & Culture.
In “True Grit,” Cogburn is described as “a pitiless man, double-tough,” and an abuser of those he arrested. The novel states that Cogburn even robbed a bank prior to becoming a deputy marshal.
Akins said a number of “’Rooster’ Cogburns” served in the western district of Arkansas, which included Fort Smith, in the second half of the 19th century.
“He was just a representative figure of those hardy deputy marshals who worked for Judge Parker’s court,” Charles Portis wrote in his letter.
In the movie versions of “True Grit,” “Rooster” Cogburn – played by John Wayne in 1969 and Jeff Bridges in 2010 – wears a patch over his right eye.
“Charles said that he was in some federal building in Fort Smith, and there were these photographs of all of these old marshals. He happened to notice one that had a bad eye. Not necessarily an eye patch — just a bad eye,” Jonathan Portis said. “He decided he would just follow the description of that one, the way he looked.”
Akins said that Charles Portis “probably was reasonably accurate” in his description of Fort Smith compared to those of others. He said the perception of Fort Smith has often been exaggerated to the public.
“The fictional writers really messed things up, even at the time,” Akins said. “The writers east of the Mississippi just told awful stories. They just made up stuff.”
Though Charles Portis set “True Grit” in Arkansas and Oklahoma, the movies made from the story were filmed in Colorado in 1969 and in New Mexico and Texas in 2010. In his letter, Charles Portis said the producer of the 1969 movie thought about shooting the Fort Smith scenes in downtown Van Buren, but was unable due to “logistical problems.”
Though neither movie was shot in the locations of the original story, Jonathan Portis said his brother was generally pleased with the outcomes.
“He understands that they are a different art form from novels, and what you can do in a novel, you can’t necessarily do in a movie,” Jonathan Portis said. “Certain things have to be changed.”
“People come expecting to see and hear things like in the movie, but it was just a movie,” Akins said.
Despite the success of “True Grit,” Charles Portis said he never imagined his work taking off like it did. He said the national success of his novel, which he called “a very regional story” in his letter to the Historic Site, took him by surprise.
“You write what interests you, without looking over your shoulder, and sometimes the thing appeals to others,” he says in his letter.