Just west of La Porte, Colorado on scenic state highway 14 outside of Ft. Collins, a family of tourists from Ohio was traveling and taking in the scenic views of the mountains. It was early fall in the canyon of the Cache La Poudre River and the red rocks varied from a deep maroon in shadow to brilliant scarlet in the full sun. The golden leaves of the aspen trees against the deep green of the evergreens complimented the turquoise sky and wispy white clouds so that it was a picture perfect day. Even the kids in the back had quit bickering and were taking in the mountains.
Then they saw a 3 guys on horseback dart onto the road from the cover of a large grove of evergreens. They were dressed in classic 19th-century Western gear: tattered jeans, cowboy boots, leather chaps, checkered blue-flannel shirts, leather vests, and broad-rimmed felt hats. Each of them also had a gun belt slung low on their hips and a Colt .45 pointed at the family.
As Dad stomped on the brakes of the SUV, he looked around for a film crew, so perfect was the reproduction that they must be filming a Western nearby. He was waiting to hear "CUT" yelled out. But there was no one else in sight. Not another car or truck or person. It was just the family and the 3 robbers on horseback pointing their guns at them.
No one said a thing. The 3 robbers motioned with their guns for the family to get out of the SUV. They clamored out and stood silently with their shaky hands held high in the air facing the thugs.
KABLAM! The explosive sound startled everyone and the family watched what appeared to be a reddish-colored cannonball hurtling across the road and crashing into the trees behind the robbers. Instantly the robbers their guns and their horses all disappeared.
The family continued standing there in the middle of the road in front of their SUV with their hands held high for a long moment after. They didn't moved (except for putting their hands down) until a State Police cruiser pulled up behind them with its lights flashing. The trooper got out and came up to them. "Any reason why you folks are stopped smack in the middle of the road?" "Did your engine die? Do you need help?"
Mom spoke up since the others hadn't yet recovered their voices. She told the trooper what had just happened and the trooper was understandably skeptical. The youngest broke into the conversation pointing to the swatch of freshly broken tree limbs by the side of the road saying, "that's where the cannonball hit! You can't ignore that!"
The trooper replied "Yes, something crashed into those trees but it wasn't an artillery shell. It was a falling rock. It happens now and then, especially this time of the year. Water goes into cracks in the rocks, then freezes during the frosty fall nights. The crack becomes a split and eventually loosened chunks of rock fall down."
"That's not what happened," said an unexpected voice from the back of the trooper's car. "you saw some ghosts from Robbers Roost, right up the cliff there. A bunch of robbers used to hole up there and rob travelers on the old La Porte-to-Ft. Laramie Trail. That there Robbers Roost was such a natural fort that the army had to use a cannon to persuade the bad guys to give it up."
"Pay no attention to old Sam there," interjected the trooper. "I picked him up drunk as a skunk and I'm taking him home. He's harmless but he likes to tell old stories."
Was it falling rocks or cannonballs that chased off the phantom robbers? Most old timers and tourists are inclined to believe old Sam . . . even if he is an old drunk.
(Adapted from Haunted Colorado by Charles Stansfield, Jr.)
