Our Arklahoma Heritage: The sites and sounds of Yell County became the basis of the story for Charles Portis' True Grit

Charles Portis

In Yell County, along the banks of the Arkansas River, a family farm stretches across nearly five hundred acres of fertile land. Here, in the late 1870s setting of Charles Portis's novel True Grit, a fourteen-year-old girl named Mattie Ross learns of her father's murder. She sets out in winter, determined to see justice done, declaring, "I aimed to see him shot or hanged."

The landscape she crosses includes fieldstone buildings with grimy windows and dusty trails leading to frontier towns, where outlaws flee into Indian Territory and lawmen like the one-eyed Rooster Cogburn enforce order with grit and gunfire.

Portis drew inspiration for True Grit from his own Arkansas upbringing and journalistic background. Born in El Dorado in 1933, he grew up in various southern Arkansas towns during the Depression.

After serving in the Marine Corps during the Korean War, he studied journalism at the University of Arkansas. His career as a reporter took him to the New York Herald-Tribune, where he eventually became London bureau chief.

In that role, he edited reports from rural stringers in the Ozarks, whose colorful language shaped the vivid voice of Mattie Ross. By 1964, Portis left journalism to focus on fiction, returning to Arkansas.

True Grit, his second novel published in 1968, reflects historical elements like the era's "Hanging Judge" Isaac Parker in Fort Smith, blending western conventions with a realistic Arkansas backdrop and dry humor.The story follows Mattie as she hires Cogburn, a grizzled deputy marshal, to track Tom Chaney, the coward who shot her father in Fort Smith and robbed him of his life, horse, and cash.

Joined by Texas Ranger LaBoeuf, they ride into the wilderness, facing bandits in cabins with good roofs but filled with tension. Portis invokes the harsh frontier through details like a rat in a corn meal bin, targeted by Cogburn's revolver in a smoky room, or the meadowlarks of Yell County singing in spring--a sound Mattie's father would never hear again.

Mattie reminds readers, "You must pay for everything in this world one way and another. There is nothing free except the Grace of God." Her pursuit embodies resolve, as she notes, "The wicked flee when none pursueth," drawing from biblical wisdom to fuel her quest

.True Grit first appeared as a serial in the Saturday Evening Post and became a bestseller, praised for its unsentimental tone and comparisons to Mark Twain's work. It marked a high point in Portis's career, which spanned five novels over decades.

His debut, Norwood in 1966, follows an ex-marine chasing a debt across states, meeting eccentrics along the way. After True Grit, he wrote The Dog of the South in 1979, about a man's road trip to reclaim his wife; Masters of Atlantis in 1985, satirizing secret societies; and Gringos in 1991, exploring expatriate life in Mexico.

Portis favored picaresque plots and deadpan comedy, creating memorable characters with authentic dialogue. He remained reclusive, shunning publicity, but earned recognition like the Oxford American's Lifetime Achievement Award in Southern Literature in 2010. In 2023, the Library of America published his Collected Works, affirming his status as a distinctive voice in American fiction.

The novel's success led to two film adaptations. The 1969 version, directed by Henry Hathaway, stars John Wayne as Cogburn, earning him his only Oscar for a cantankerous portrayal. Kim Darby, aged 21, plays Mattie, with Glen Campbell as LaBoeuf. Filmed in Colorado's Rocky Mountains, it features clean costumes, colorful visuals, and a more upbeat tone, diverging from the book's flat Arkansas terrain

Some view it as cheesy, with broad humor and mid-day lighting that softens the grit.

In contrast, the 2010 Coen Brothers film stars Jeff Bridges as a gruffer Cogburn, Hailee Steinfeld (14, matching Mattie's age) as a spirited Ross, and Matt Damon as LaBoeuf. Shot in Texas and New Mexico, it hews closer to the novel's ending, realism, and violence, with deliberate cinematography capturing dusty trails and harsh winters.

Critics often prefer the remake for its fidelity to Portis's text and production values, though both capture the story's adventure.

Yell County anchors True Grit's world, with Dardanelle as Mattie's home and the starting point of her journey. The area's river valleys and pioneer history inform the novel's sense of place, where decent folk farm on civilization's edge, near outlaws and strong religious communities.

Today, the True Grit Trail follows Highway 22 from Dardanelle to Fort Smith, about 75 miles, highlighting sites like the Yell County Historical Society exhibit. Portis's work preserves this frontier spirit, reminding readers of Arkansas's role in tales of justice and endurance.