I'm not sure that my little bit of information will be of any intgerest to you , but in the late 1920's and early thirties this Ft Smith Stock yards activity was by far the most interesting happenings in this little commuity of Moffett. It was locat ed On the MOffett Okla side of the Arkansas river , accross From Ft Smith. The new "free bridge' was clossed to all kinds of trafick on the day before sale day, I think that sale days were wednesday. All the Horses and Mules that had been shipped into Ft Smith were gathered and driven by cowboys on horses across the river Bridge and into the large holding pins where they were tagged and readied for sale on the following day. There might be hundreds of the Horses and Mules. The auction arena was a bleachers tyype of structure with a sale ring where the animals were exhibited showing off their special training or abilities. The musical auctioneers were very talented and tried to out do each other. You had to be skilled to understand the language. My job as a young kid was to drivse the sold animals down the trailway to their newly assigned pens . I also done some feeding etc and a lot of shoveling. The place was operated by Leon and John B. Williams. They were the real horse and mule experts. They could tell you the animals age by looking at its teeth. I'm sure that they never misled anyone???? There was about 3 service stations , a 3.2 % beer joint and a beer garden at the old City Service Station which was owned by my uncle George Hail. I think that I worked at each of these places. The livestock yards provided almost steady work for a few people. I loved it and left there about 1935 when it was just about closed down. There was a railroad siding there that come from Greenwood Junction past the stock yardsand on over to Ft Smith across the railroad bridge. Gosh what a bunch of pleasant memories to recall, which I hadn't thought of in years. Than ks for the interest you have in this . Tom Humphrey

Thank You for such a wonderful story. I really enjoy hearing tales about things like this. Once again, Thanks. Keith Eppler ----- Original Message ----- From: <[email protected]> To: <[email protected]> Sent: Monday, January 28, 2002 6:05 PM Subject: Re: [OKSequoy] Moffett Horse & Mule Auction & Stockyards > I'm not sure that my little bit of information will be of any intgerest to > you , but in the late 1920's and early thirties this Ft Smith Stock yards > activity was by far the most interesting happenings in this little commuity > of Moffett. It was locat ed On the MOffett Okla side of the Arkansas river , > accross From Ft Smith. The new "free bridge' was clossed to all kinds of > trafick on the day before sale day, I think that sale days were wednesday. > All the Horses and Mules that had been shipped into Ft Smith were gathered > and driven by cowboys on horses across the river Bridge and into the large > holding pins where they were tagged and readied for sale on the following > day. There might be hundreds of the Horses and Mules. The auction arena > was a bleachers tyype of structure with a sale ring where the animals were > exhibited showing off their special training or abilities. The musical > auctioneers were very talented and tried to out do each other. You had to be > skilled to understand the language. My job as a young kid was to drivse > the sold animals down the trailway to their newly assigned pens . I also > done some feeding etc and a lot of shoveling. The place was operated by > Leon and John B. Williams. They were the real horse and mule experts. They > could tell you the animals age by looking at its teeth. I'm sure that they > never misled anyone???? There was about 3 service stations , a 3.2 % beer > joint and a beer garden at the old City Service Station which was owned by my > uncle George Hail. I think that I worked at each of these places. The > livestock yards provided almost steady work for a few people. I loved it > and left there about 1935 when it was just about closed down. There was a > railroad siding there that come from Greenwood Junction past the stock > yardsand on over to Ft Smith across the railroad bridge. Gosh what a bunch > of pleasant memories to recall, which I hadn't thought of in years. Than ks > for the interest you have in this . Tom Humphrey >