Growing up in Colorado came with a steady dose of frontier mythology. And
as other Western places, it also partakes in its fair share of exceptionalism.
Fort Smith, Arkansas was no exception to that. It is certainly proud of its frontier heritage. More than once in my short time there, I was told that the small city had won the True West magazine's number one spot on its annual list of True Western Towns.
It is also proud of its firsts
and exceptions: the official US Marshals Service museum will be built here, and
it also proudly shares that it hosts the only bordello on the national registry of historic places. Miss Laura's now houses the official visitors’ center. Visitors can get a little tour of the place and learn that for a time in the 1920s, the ‘social club’ was regulated by the
local health department.
By the looks of the health certificate (you get your very own when you visit!), the health department was making a pretty penny.
I was first told to visit Miss Laura's while in Hot Springs, Ark. For the woman who enthused about it as a destination, it seemed to give an insight into the lives of tough, independent working class women. This is not the only meaning the place has for people, for certain, but I am intrigued by the intrigue that ostensibly frank talk about sex and the lives of sex workers brought with it. On the tour, we saw the parlor and upstairs bedrooms (now housing tourism offices), and period clothes and furniture, and a few photographs and public health records. Nothing lurid like famous johns or raucous parties, so maybe the understatement was its own suggestion. Or nothing much beyond the acknowledgement of sex work in this border place needed to be said as it taps into titillating narratives of bordellos in the Wild West.
I was first told to visit Miss Laura's while in Hot Springs, Ark. For the woman who enthused about it as a destination, it seemed to give an insight into the lives of tough, independent working class women. This is not the only meaning the place has for people, for certain, but I am intrigued by the intrigue that ostensibly frank talk about sex and the lives of sex workers brought with it. On the tour, we saw the parlor and upstairs bedrooms (now housing tourism offices), and period clothes and furniture, and a few photographs and public health records. Nothing lurid like famous johns or raucous parties, so maybe the understatement was its own suggestion. Or nothing much beyond the acknowledgement of sex work in this border place needed to be said as it taps into titillating narratives of bordellos in the Wild West.
The geek version that I imagine of this "bordello on the border" would open up the possibility for talking about the relations among the
military, colonialism, and sex. But that is a different project than what I came here to look into.
No comments:
Post a Comment