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BCS Championship Football

By Times Free Press Staff January 8, 2010 1 min read

Photo Gallery

Fort Chaffee in history

Aerial view of Fort Chaffee barracks in this undated photo. The section of barracks in the photo is the section that burned in a fire fanned by strong winds on Tuesday.

The fire burned the World War II era buildings, which were once part of the U.S.Army facility at Fort Chaffee.

Buildings spared after the Fort Chaffee fire.

The fire left skeletons of the buildings that once stood at Fort Chaffee.

A charred vehicle remains after the fire that burned WWII-era buildings at Fort Chaffee.

Steps are all that remain after a fire tore through Fort Chaffee on Tuesday.

Fort Smith firefighters douse hot spots after the fire that burned the WWII-era buildings at Fort Chaffee.

Fort Smith firefighters put out hot spots after the fire that destroyed buildings at Fort Chaffee.

Fort Smith firefighters put out hot spots after the fire that burned dozens of buildings at Fort Chaffee.

Fire and police investigators examine the aftermath of the fire at Fort Chaffee.

Otis Jordan of New Orleans carries luggage to a waiting bus while preparing to leave Fort Chaffee. Jordan said he had been at the camp since Sunday and was being relocated to another place in Arkansas.

Elvis Presley has his hair cut by James Patterson at Fort Chaffee in March 1958.

President Gerald Ford speaks at the Relocation Steps for refugees in Fort Smith, Ark., on Aug. 11, 1975.

A signpost appears outside the barracks at Fort Chaffee on Jan. 30, 1982

An Arkansas State Trooper raises a billy club as he and other state policemen divert Cubans from the highway after the refugees left Fort Chaffee early Sunday, June 1, 1980.

Fort Chaffee has had its moments in history. From last week's fire that consumed 150 buildings to Elvis Presley's famous haircut in 1958 to a holding facility for refugees in the 1970s and '80s to a halfway house for Hurricane Katrina victims, Fort Chaffee has been well used.