Goofy Ridge, Illinois.
Over the weekend as we were exiting Havana, my wife was looking at a map and said “There’s actually a town called Goofy Ridge!?”
I forgot about it until I heard this morning’s severe weather forecast which in part said “towns in the path of this storm are Havana, Forest City, Goofy Ridge…” Curiosity got the best of me, so here’s the legend of how Goofy Ridge got its name -
Years back it was just The Ridge, a camp near the river bank where moonshiners and other carousers met weekly to do their drinking. After some serious drinking one night, a local game warden said he wasn’t too drunk to shoot a walnut off the head of a volunteer. Naturally, someone was drunk enough to volunteer. The game warden placed the tiny target on the volunteer’s head, aimed his .22 rifle, and shot the nut right off. This caper was called by a witness “one damned goofy thing to do,” and the camp was ever after known as Goofy Ridge.
aside – I have a framed 1898 map of Illinois hanging in my home and neither The Ridge or Goofy Ridge is listed.
August 4th, 2009 at 11:51 pm
You are so brave to go there.
August 5th, 2009 at 9:38 am
Doesn’t sound like the Ridge has changed much since it earned it’s name
November 4th, 2009 at 3:40 pm
It was not a game warden that shot the walnut off of the guys head. And it is not a town or village. It is a group of houses that have a mailing address of Topeka, Illinois.