The Chaffee Barbershop Museum occupies one of the original buildings at the former Fort Chaffee military base, a World War II-era training camp on the southern edge of Fort Smith that later processed thousands of Vietnamese refugees in 1975 and Cuban refugees in 1980. The museum's central claim to fame is the original barber's chair where Elvis Presley sat to receive his Army induction haircut in March 1958 — an event that drew national press coverage and made front pages across America.
The museum has expanded beyond Elvis to cover the full history of Fort Chaffee, including the WWII training years and the refugee reception operations. The surrounding area of Fort Chaffee has been redeveloped as a mixed-use district, so the museum sits amid new construction, but the barbershop itself has been preserved intact. Admission is free.