General Darby Legacy Project Statue

What better day then General William Darbys 102nd  birthday to announce the kick off of the General Darby Legacy Project.

The non-profit organization received the Fort Smith Board of Directors approval for a statue to be placed at Cisterna Park on Garrison Ave in Fort Smith honoring General William Darby.

'We are so excited. We have formalized our committee, and we have people that are just really willing to work with us and are excited about the future on the program,' says group member Liz Armstrong.

The group kicked off their fundraising to get the statue created today at the Fort Smith Museum of History. The statue will come with a price tag of just under $200,000.00.

Darby led the famous Darby's Rangers which evolved into today's US Army Rangers and was also made famous as a major motion picture.

Armstrong says, 'General Darby was one of our hometown hero's' and that 'He changed the world in many ways with Rangers, Ranger history.'

767 went into Cisterna, Italy during WWII, and only 6 survived. The town of Cisterna dedicated its high school to Darby and considers him a 'Guardian', which is why Cisterna Park was chosen as the place to honor him.