Mexico weekly ledger., 1898-09-15
SIGHT SEEING.
GRAPHIC DESCRIPTION OF FORT
WICKED, WHICH PLACE WAS
VISITED BY EDITORS.
The Newspaper Men Attend q Big
Corn Roasting Editor White Says
he Has to Eat 80 Much That it
Keeps Him Tired.

Editorial Correspondence Of the Ledger.
DENVER, Colo, Sept. 1 2-The
thermometer Is 40. 1t is showing. l
have on my summer clothes, but you
'sdon't notice the cold In Colorado"
they say; SO, of course, l am comfort
able and happy.
After the close of our business meet
ing Friday we began a 10 days tour OF
the State, and on Saturday We took
In" q big "corn roast" at Loveland. A
corn roast is like a barbecue except
that you roast corr instead OF meat.
. big corn roast would prove most
popular in Mexico. OF course, it would
have to be held during the "roasting
ear" period. An unlimited amount OF
roasting ears, plenty of fine
watermelons and good coffee and
there you are. 1t Is all right, / assure
you, as members of our party will
FULLY testify. II sounds funny for
t % come to Colorado to a
corn roast, but judging from the way
We showed our appreciation You
think there was no corn grown
n Missouri.
A great Indian feast with all the &C.
cessories of dancing and gamesis to be
enacted In the extreme southwestern
corner of Colorado.
Already the eyes of a thousand In
dams, Utes and Navajoes, are turned
the waning luminary and in q
few days they will begin the march
from all parts of Southern Colorado
and Northern New Mexico to the
of the McElmo canon, which is
about a days journey from Mancos
Here is an immense amphi-
and in the recesses OF the
cliffs are the ruined homes
of a community of cliff jewellers. 1t
is, in the Indian mind, q sacred and
ghostly spot and their ceremonies in
honor of the harvest season will have
an added impressiveness. Very few
can attend, as the journey is a
difficult one, but the spectacle will be
undergoing hardships to see,
not only for its picturesque qualities,
but also for its anthropological inter-
est.
This feast will not be q r roast,
but will be well worth seeing, I am
sure.
We visited "Fort Wicked" this week
and all of our party were anxious to
know what there was there SO wicked.
FORT WICKED.
The extensions of the gulf system
the route of the old overland
stage line. The valley Is now so we'll
and numbers SO many flourish
ing towns that the traveller can scarcely
believe that the Indian once made this
a "dark and bloody ground" Here
and there are the ruins of an old stage
station and there is not one Of them
but could tell of fierce raids by the
Sioux and the Northern Cheyenne and
Arapahoe, of murdered and mutilated
man and women, of stolen stock and
of all the horrors of Indian warfare.
The story of n of these stations pos
sesses a peculiar interest as illustrate
ing the desperate courage of its keeper,
Holon Godfrey. His was q "home
station" as all stations where drivers
were changed we're known. Godfrey
was q bluff, hearty frontiersman who,
with his family, had been long on the
plains and all of them were Injured to
the dangers of Indian fighting and the
hardships of border life. When he
took this station he was fully aware of
its exposed position, and he, there.
fore, constructed q heavy adobe wall
about the house and stables, dug q
well within the enclosure and always
kept q good stock Of provisions on
hand. He called the place "Fort
Wicked" and, with it's port holes and
1ookouts and other means Of defense,
it looked a fort indeed.
In 1s64-65 the Indians raided the
whole stage route between the Mis-
souri, river and Salt Lake and there
vas but one station on the Colorado
line left occupied, and that was "Fort
Wicked" Godfrey swore In the most
emphatic of plain osths that he would
not abandon his home, and he imme-
diately prepared to defend it. One
day the Indians pounced down upon
him, determined not to be deled by
this daring son OF Kentucky. The
only garrison of "Fort Wicked" was
Godfrey, his wife and two daughters,
but stouter hearts or Q mor unerring
aim never resisted the attacks of q
savage foe. Godfrey was an expert
with the rifle. No Indian on whom he
leveled his gun ever lived if::he was in
range. The women kept the guns
loaded and Godfrey did the shooting.
He wasted no ammunition. Every
time his rifle cracked there was adead
or wounded Indian. 30 rapid was his
firing and SO deadly its results hat the
savages thought there was Q large
number Of men in the fort and hssi-
tated about making Q charge upon 1t.
Thus for two days the fight was kept
up with the invariable result that
whenever an indian popped his head
up within range of G~odfrey's rife he
passed speedily to the "happy hunting
grounds"
By some means the rumor got along
the stage line that Godfrey's station
was besieged and q party Of ten or
fifteen men started to the rescue.
They rode rapidly and the Indians, "a
they saw the dust made by theiz
horses and thinking it was q band Of
soldiers, retired and made for the
northern bluffs. "Fort Wicked" and
it's heroic garrison was saved.
When the overland stage line was
Withdrawn Godfrey moved with his
family to the mouth of the Big Thomp-
son. The leader Of the party that