Fatty was born Edwin L. Rice on 30 September 1857 in Kent County, Michigan. He married Phoebe D. Devenport at Grand Rapids on 12 March 1880. After the birth of their first daughter Helen, the couple moved to Colorado City and opened a home bakery and meat market in the 2600 block of West Colorado Avenue. Signs above the door read: "Lunch Baskets Filled. Tobacco and Cigars. Candies and Nuts."
When a town called Garden City was platted along the old carriage road leading into the Garden, Edwin and Phoebe purchased four choice lots on the corner of Clinton Avenue and Wellington Street, immediately east of the Gateway Rocks. There in 1892 they built "Fatty's Place," a rambling wooden structure that contained a curio shop in the front and a beer hall in the rear.
The Rice's also advertised in the local newspapers. The advertisements were run under Phoebe's name "P.D Rice." An item in the Manitou Sun of 16 September 1899 read:
Fatty and his wife continued to work the Garden though the 1890's. Several of their seven children (Helen, Winnifred, Agnes, Phoebe, Jennie, Edwin, May) were born there. Fatty himself always remained a gregarious individual, who numbered hundreds among his friends. In his middle years Fatty sported a moustache, later a beard and moustache, and in his last years a clean shaven face. No matter his appearance, he always served as a one-man welcome wagon for the Garden of the Gods. "Best sparking place in all El Paso County," he would tell his visitors.
By the turn of the century Fatty's health had begun to fail him. On 24 January 1902, while sitting at the dinner table, he suffered a paralytic stroke that rendered him unconscious. He died seventy hours later. He was just fifty years old.
Fatty's widow continued to operate the family business for another five years. In 1907 she married Calvin Curtis of nearby Manitou and sold her holdings in the Garden of the Gods. The stock of curios and Indian goods went for $5,000 to Charles Wyman, proprietor of the Qrio store on Pikes Peak Avenue. Wyman also acquired the petrified Indian, which later came into the possssion of Charles Stausenback and was put on display at his Trading Post at the southwestern entrance to the Garden.
Phoebe sold the original Fatty's Place to her neighbor on the north, General William Palmer. The General had always frowned on the sale of liquor in the Garden, and was delighted with his acquisition. On 12 February 1907 he worte a jubilant letter to his friend Charles Perkins, owner of the central Garden area:
Fatty's Place featured beer advertisements on the roof. Painted on the south roof were the words: "Drink Zang's Pure Malt Tonic." Painted on the west roof were the words: "Patronize Home Industry. Drink the P.H. Zang Brewing Co's Lager Beer. On Draught Here." On the front face of the building were even more signs: "Native Stones. Precious Gems. Specimens. Ice Lemonade. Ice Milk. Buttermilk. Popcorn Machine.""When driving through the Garden stop and see 'Fatty' and his curios! The finest line of Curios, Cut and Uncut Gems, Fossils, etc. in Colorado. As I buy my blankets, baskets, etc., direct from the Indians, I can offer them cheaper than anyone in Colorado. A genuine Digger Indian from the Cliff Dwellings in Southern Colorado is on exhibition. P.D. Rice. Garden of the Gods. Post Office - Colorado City."
The "Digger Indian" mentioned in this advertisement was the so-called petrified Indian which Fatty was said to have acquired from the infamouos Soapy Smith. The reclining stone figure came to occupy a position of prominence at Fatty's Place. It was always kept in a glass case. Although the lower half of the legs were missing, the remainder of the body measured over five feet in length. Depite its suspicious origin, the petrified Indian eventually became one of the unique attractions in the Garden of the Gods. On a warm Sunday afternoon in the late 1890's, tourists by the hundreds would flock to Fatty Rice's Place for a glimpse of the famous petrifaction and perhaps for a few sips of the cold Zang's beer always kept in ample supply."...have just closed at last with Fatty Rice's widow, so that I am your sole neighbor on the North and East. I had to pay her a pretty sum for her 'Naboth's Vineyard.' and two little houses, to-wit $15,000 - but a come-down from the $80,000 she asked a few years ago. Now as soon as you have established your Park adjoining, I will put up new, or improve these buildings, so as to have an attractive little country inn, where visitors may obtain lunches, teas, and other light meals with sandwiches 'out of glass,' but not intoxicants, -also curios, crystals, fossils, bits of ancient Saurians, Navajo blankets, etc. etc., - thereby hoping to rent my new possession for enough to pay a small interest on its cost...."
Palmer's country inn was never opened. A short time after he purchased Fatty's Place, the building was completely destroyed by a fire of mysterious origin.