Fort Wicked

The bronze stands 940 feet east of where Holon Godfrey's ranch and stage station held out through a siege in mid-January 1865, during the Cheyenne and Lakota raids along the South Platte that followed Sand Creek. The plaque credits the name to that "bitter defence." Another account says the warriors called Godfrey "Old Wicked," and that he answered by painting FORT WICKED over his gate. Nothing of the ranch survives. The family stayed until the Union Pacific reached Cheyenne in 1868, then moved upriver to farm near La Salle, where Godfrey Bottoms still carries the name.

What the plaque says

This memorial is the property of the State of Colorado Due west 940 feet stood "Fort Wicked" originally Godfrey's Ranch famous Overland Stage station One of the few posts withstanding the Indian uprising of 1864 on the road to Colorado Named from the bitter defence made by Holon Godfrey Erected by the State Historical Society of Colorado from the Mrs. J. N. Hall Foundation and by the Sterling Chamber of Commerce 1929

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• Sterling Tree Sculptures — 15 mi
  A plains town that answered dying shade trees by handing their trunks to a young local carver, and became the City of Living Trees.

More markers nearby

• Battle of Summit Springs — 8.6 mi
• Valley Station — 16 mi