If you look at the rigid forks available, many will say that they are "suspension corrected." This means that the end result of installing the fork will put the bike at about the same place as it would be with the suspension fork compressed slightly.

If you look at your current suspension fork, you'll see that the dropouts are forward of the legs on the fork which gives you some rake. It would be impossible to have curved suspension fork legs so the offset method is used. The end result is the same.

I will also add a shameless plug for my soon-to-be unneeded Surly 1x1 fork (http://www.speedgoat.com/product.asp...t=34&brand=245). It's the V-brake only version and the steerer tube is cut to about 8.5" so if you have a medium or smaller frame it could work for you. I'm sure we could work out a cheap deal if you were interested. It's in very good shape but is being replaced by a fork with a disc mount.