WEBVTT - Season 09 Episode 4: To Each Man His Castle (Pt. 2) 0:00:10.600 --> 0:00:13.640 You're listening to the second and final part of Unexplained, 0:00:13.640 --> 0:00:23.640 Season nine, episode four, to Each Man His Castle. In 0:00:23.720 --> 0:00:27.760 January of nineteen thirty two, a small, poorly written advertisement 0:00:27.960 --> 0:00:32.240 in the Miami Daily News invited curious sightseers to visit 0:00:32.320 --> 0:00:36.960 an obscure corner of southern Florida. The directions were clear, 0:00:37.240 --> 0:00:41.640 if somewhat reliant on local knowledge, go towards Florida City, 0:00:41.920 --> 0:00:46.240 then follow Palm Avenue south to Redland Road. After half 0:00:46.280 --> 0:00:50.520 a mile, turn west and continue for another quarter mile. There, 0:00:50.680 --> 0:00:54.600 the ad promised, you will find Ed's place. The cost 0:00:54.640 --> 0:00:59.800 of entry was ten cents. Two photographs accompanied the advert. 0:01:00.480 --> 0:01:04.960 The first depicted a maze like arrangement of stones, though 0:01:04.959 --> 0:01:07.959 the coarse grain image made it hard to discern the 0:01:08.040 --> 0:01:12.080 exact layout. The second photo is clearer and shows a 0:01:12.120 --> 0:01:17.080 man in a shirt tie and dark formal trousers. His 0:01:17.240 --> 0:01:20.560 hair is crisply parted, and his posture is as tense 0:01:20.600 --> 0:01:24.800 as his face is haggard. He is unrecognizable from the 0:01:24.840 --> 0:01:28.520 first photograph taken of him on American shores some twenty 0:01:28.600 --> 0:01:32.720 years previously, but the most noteworthy thing in the photo 0:01:33.120 --> 0:01:36.120 is not the man. It's the chair. He is sitting 0:01:36.120 --> 0:01:40.360 on a carved block of rough stone over two tons 0:01:40.360 --> 0:01:44.040 in weight. Next to it is a huge table top 0:01:44.280 --> 0:01:49.720 sitting on rough hewn stone legs. In the photograph, the dimensions, 0:01:49.920 --> 0:01:54.440 shape and true size are hard to make out, but 0:01:54.640 --> 0:01:58.320 visitors to the strange exhibition were discovered that the table 0:01:58.720 --> 0:02:01.600 is carved into the sh of the state of Florida. 0:02:02.520 --> 0:02:05.600 This vast furniture as the sole work of the man 0:02:05.720 --> 0:02:09.680 sitting at them, rocking in his colossal armchair, trying and 0:02:09.760 --> 0:02:14.160 failing to convey a sense of ease and relaxation. His 0:02:14.320 --> 0:02:18.320 diminutive frame only serves to highlight the sheer scale of 0:02:18.360 --> 0:02:22.920 the stone that surrounds him. It is Edward Leedscownin, of course, 0:02:23.520 --> 0:02:26.560 and all that stone is the first iteration of his 0:02:26.720 --> 0:02:30.760 life's work. It would have many names over the years. 0:02:31.560 --> 0:02:34.639 At the time the photo was taken, it was Ed's Place. 0:02:35.240 --> 0:02:39.040 Later it would be known as Rockgate Park, but in 0:02:39.080 --> 0:02:43.639 the enduring public imagination, it's best known as Coral Castle, 0:02:44.080 --> 0:02:48.880 America's Stonehenge, and just how it came to be remains 0:02:49.000 --> 0:03:00.399 one of the abiding enigmas of modern Americana. No one 0:03:00.480 --> 0:03:04.880 really knows when Edward Leedskownen first began the project that 0:03:05.000 --> 0:03:08.360 would carve his name into the annals of the American Bazaar. 0:03:09.600 --> 0:03:13.000 The nineteen thirty two advertisement is the first known mention 0:03:13.120 --> 0:03:16.000 of it in print, but Ed had been living and 0:03:16.080 --> 0:03:19.480 presumably working on the site for almost ten years by 0:03:19.520 --> 0:03:23.040 that point, ever since he bought two acres of Florida 0:03:23.080 --> 0:03:26.640 City land from the Moser family after they'd saved his 0:03:26.760 --> 0:03:32.040 life and helped him recuperate from near fatal tuberculosis. Ed 0:03:32.120 --> 0:03:35.600 had chosen the land because of the ready availability of 0:03:35.720 --> 0:03:40.800 oolite limestone, known in laypersons terms as coral. It was 0:03:40.840 --> 0:03:43.960 abundant in the area, and nowhere more so than on 0:03:44.040 --> 0:03:48.680 the extensive plot belonging to the Moses. During the decade 0:03:48.680 --> 0:03:52.200 that Ed spent on his two acres, he quarried the coral, 0:03:52.680 --> 0:03:56.680 heaved it from the ground, carved it into fantastic shapes, 0:03:57.160 --> 0:04:02.080 and arranged it into startling configurations. Visitors to Ed's place 0:04:02.280 --> 0:04:05.760 could wander through his larger than life creation, taking in 0:04:05.840 --> 0:04:11.560 the exquisite craftsmanship and the inexplicable heft of what he'd made. 0:04:11.760 --> 0:04:15.960 All in all, Ed extracted more than eleven hundred tons 0:04:16.000 --> 0:04:19.680 of stone from the ground, and somehow he did it 0:04:19.800 --> 0:04:24.599 all single handedly a man in ill health, standing little 0:04:24.600 --> 0:04:27.599 more than five feet tall and weighing a mere one 0:04:27.680 --> 0:04:32.240 hundred twenty pounds. It's a feat that has confounded visitors 0:04:32.240 --> 0:04:35.719 and commentators alike, and which comes with a fair share 0:04:35.760 --> 0:04:39.640 of local legend. In their two thousand and nine book 0:04:39.920 --> 0:04:45.359 Coral Castle, The Mystery of ed Leedscalnen and his American Stonehenge, 0:04:45.880 --> 0:04:49.880 authors Rusty mc cure and Jack Heffron have compiled the 0:04:49.920 --> 0:04:55.520 most comprehensive accounts from witnesses to ed Leedscownon's labors. They 0:04:55.600 --> 0:04:58.880 quote neighbors of its people who knew him well, but 0:04:58.920 --> 0:05:03.160 who were none the less as founded by what he achieved. Accounts, 0:05:03.360 --> 0:05:06.839 details and theories vary, but all agree on a few 0:05:06.880 --> 0:05:11.479 common facts. Ed worked alone, without any help from man 0:05:11.720 --> 0:05:15.880 or any other animal. He worked only at night, illuminated 0:05:15.920 --> 0:05:18.960 by the moon or by a lantern, depending on the weather. 0:05:20.000 --> 0:05:23.800 And he was only ever seen using simple handheld quarrying 0:05:23.800 --> 0:05:28.120 tools that he himself had personally crafted from car parts 0:05:28.200 --> 0:05:32.400 he scavenged from a nearby junk yard. The tools alone 0:05:32.600 --> 0:05:35.640 were a work of strange genius, let alone what he 0:05:35.720 --> 0:05:39.719 did with them. Earl s Lee was a boyhood neighbour 0:05:39.760 --> 0:05:42.559 of Ed's in nineteen twenty nine, when he was lucky 0:05:42.640 --> 0:05:46.839 enough to witness how the quarrying was done. According to Lee, 0:05:47.240 --> 0:05:50.680 he saw Ed cut and dig out the huge slab 0:05:50.720 --> 0:05:55.320 that would become the Florida shaped tabletop. Lee describes how 0:05:55.520 --> 0:05:59.240 Ed would mark out his desired shape and then dig 0:05:59.279 --> 0:06:03.240 a narrow foot wide ditch around its edges. He would 0:06:03.240 --> 0:06:06.880 then drive metal wedges into the gap, breaking the stone 0:06:06.960 --> 0:06:11.720 loose in one single piece to prize the cut shape 0:06:11.720 --> 0:06:15.279 out of the hole. Lee claims that Ed used nothing 0:06:15.360 --> 0:06:18.600 more than a few simple poles with a heavy bucket 0:06:18.800 --> 0:06:30.000 attached to the end for leverage. Other photographs collected in 0:06:30.120 --> 0:06:34.280 mcure and Heffron's book show Ed using a large ten 0:06:34.320 --> 0:06:38.800 foot tripod built from telephone poles. His block and tackle 0:06:38.880 --> 0:06:42.440 pulley system is attached to a large chain which Ed 0:06:42.480 --> 0:06:45.839 would slip beneath the cut stone once it was wedged up. 0:06:46.400 --> 0:06:49.000 In this way, it seems he was able to lift 0:06:49.200 --> 0:06:52.760 massive pieces of coral from the ground all on his own. 0:06:53.440 --> 0:06:57.000 But on top of the tripod is a strange black 0:06:57.080 --> 0:07:02.200 metal box. It seems to serve no obvious purpose, but 0:07:02.360 --> 0:07:07.279 over the years many have speculated the degenerated strange powers, 0:07:08.160 --> 0:07:11.520 powers that only Ed alone was privy to, and which 0:07:11.520 --> 0:07:17.120 he put to use in his Titanic undertaking. More prosaically, 0:07:17.720 --> 0:07:21.000 Ed's skill and knowledge is often attributed to his early 0:07:21.040 --> 0:07:25.360 apprenticeship in stonemasonry back in the Baltics, where he learned 0:07:25.400 --> 0:07:29.480 from his father. He certainly had a better than average 0:07:29.680 --> 0:07:34.600 understanding of how to cut and maneuver stone. Yet working 0:07:34.600 --> 0:07:38.720 on gravestones, it's one thing at Ed's place. Some of 0:07:38.760 --> 0:07:42.880 the stones, such as the gigantic single piece known as 0:07:42.880 --> 0:07:47.040 the Obelisk, stood over forty feet in length and weighed 0:07:47.080 --> 0:07:50.520 more than thirty tons. That's five times the weight of 0:07:50.600 --> 0:07:55.600 the average male African bush elephant. Could any level of 0:07:55.640 --> 0:07:59.840 expertise with handmade tools and a basic pulley system ex 0:08:00.000 --> 0:08:03.200 explain how Ed was able to so finely cut and 0:08:03.280 --> 0:08:08.840 position such monoliths. The engineering sophistication on display was often 0:08:09.000 --> 0:08:12.720 even more impressive and confounding than the scale of the 0:08:12.840 --> 0:08:17.880 end product. One of Ed's most famous sculptures, known as 0:08:17.920 --> 0:08:21.680 the Rock Gate, is constructed from a single nine ton 0:08:21.840 --> 0:08:26.160 slab of coral. The size is daunting, but what's more 0:08:26.160 --> 0:08:29.920 amazing still is that the door does not simply stand there, 0:08:30.160 --> 0:08:34.880 inert and imposing no all of its vast weight is 0:08:34.960 --> 0:08:40.120 set to turn with the merest pressure. Somehow, Ed first 0:08:40.240 --> 0:08:44.600 managed to hang the door perfectly. Then, having identified the 0:08:44.720 --> 0:08:48.000 exact center of mass, he bored a hole through the 0:08:48.040 --> 0:08:52.080 coral and inserted a metal rod into it. The rod 0:08:52.320 --> 0:08:56.240 is balanced so precisely on ball bearings scavenged from a 0:08:56.280 --> 0:09:00.880 model t Ford that, when pushed, the door smoothly swivels 0:09:01.160 --> 0:09:04.240 with less than a quarter inch clearance between it and 0:09:04.280 --> 0:09:09.880 the surrounding doorframe. Extracting the slab is one thing, Maneuvering 0:09:09.920 --> 0:09:14.160 it into place is yet another. But the accuracy required 0:09:14.400 --> 0:09:19.520 to sow perfectly suspend nine tons of stone that seems 0:09:19.559 --> 0:09:23.560 beyond the reach of even the most skilled stone masons. 0:09:25.320 --> 0:09:28.959 As a paper in the Journal Civil Engineering would later 0:09:29.000 --> 0:09:33.000 point out, not one piece of stonework showed any sign 0:09:33.080 --> 0:09:36.880 of a crack or damage, suggesting that Ed had somehow 0:09:37.160 --> 0:09:40.680 managed to create this great work without any need for 0:09:40.760 --> 0:09:45.120 trial and error. In other words, it seems he got 0:09:45.160 --> 0:09:58.560 it all correct first time. By the late nineteen twenties, 0:09:59.120 --> 0:10:02.160 Ed was welcoming plenty of visitors to see his hand 0:10:02.280 --> 0:10:06.120 carved wonders. The ad he placed in the Miami Daily 0:10:06.200 --> 0:10:10.400 News in nineteen thirty two claimed that over seventeen thousand 0:10:10.400 --> 0:10:14.960 people had walked his grounds, a figure that seems strikingly 0:10:15.000 --> 0:10:19.600 optimistic for such a rural stretch of the state. Florida 0:10:19.679 --> 0:10:24.040 City only had approximately one thousand inhabitants, so it's hard 0:10:24.040 --> 0:10:27.880 to believe that Ed's estimated footfall is anything more than 0:10:28.000 --> 0:10:31.800 crude boosterism. But Ed dismissed the notion that he was 0:10:31.880 --> 0:10:36.160 interested in fame or profit. Instead, those who took his 0:10:36.280 --> 0:10:39.199 tour would be treated to a well honed speech that 0:10:39.360 --> 0:10:44.680 implied far more romantic motivations. Ed's place, he said, was 0:10:44.720 --> 0:10:49.000 dedicated to his great love, young Agnes Scuffs, the bride 0:10:49.040 --> 0:10:51.920 who jilted him at the Altar back in Europe, who 0:10:52.000 --> 0:10:56.760 he'd never forgotten. As Ed's story went, he'd undertaken his 0:10:56.880 --> 0:11:00.280 great task in her honor. It was intended as a 0:11:00.320 --> 0:11:04.199 castle fit for his queen. Some of the sculptures tied 0:11:04.240 --> 0:11:08.120 firmly into his tail. One structure, which Ed called his 0:11:08.200 --> 0:11:11.240 Feast of Love Table, was a five thousand pound block 0:11:11.280 --> 0:11:14.760 of coral carved into the shape of a heart. In 0:11:14.800 --> 0:11:17.920 the center was a small hole into which Ed placed 0:11:17.960 --> 0:11:22.240 an Exora flower or West Indian jasmine. He would tell 0:11:22.280 --> 0:11:26.000 his tour groups that men too often neglected their wives, 0:11:26.400 --> 0:11:28.880 and he wanted his lost love to have flowers in 0:11:28.920 --> 0:11:33.520 her honor every day. Another part of the site, known 0:11:33.559 --> 0:11:38.680 as the Throne Room, contained several chairs. The largest, Ed's 0:11:38.720 --> 0:11:42.520 throne sat atop a stone plinth. Next to that was 0:11:42.559 --> 0:11:46.320 a smaller version of the same design, just waiting for 0:11:46.400 --> 0:11:50.439 Agnes should she ever come back to him. A few 0:11:50.480 --> 0:11:53.760 feet away was a sinuous slab of stone that Ed 0:11:54.040 --> 0:11:57.640 called his love seat. This would allow two people to 0:11:57.720 --> 0:12:01.640 sit side by side yet faced to f and was intended, 0:12:01.880 --> 0:12:05.600 Ed explained, to help him and his fantasy princess to 0:12:05.720 --> 0:12:10.840 resolve their quarrels. Whether Ed really expected Agnes to join 0:12:10.920 --> 0:12:15.200 him in America is doubtful. In all his papers and writings, 0:12:15.360 --> 0:12:18.440 there's no indication he ever once wrote to her, or 0:12:18.480 --> 0:12:22.240 indeed to any of his loved ones back home. In fact, 0:12:22.600 --> 0:12:27.040 there are those who think that Agnes Scuffs never truly existed. 0:12:28.360 --> 0:12:32.160 Some offer a more sinister interpretation that the true focus 0:12:32.200 --> 0:12:36.440 of Ed's desire was Lois Moser, the teenage daughter of 0:12:36.480 --> 0:12:40.679 his neighbors, the family who had saved his life. There 0:12:40.760 --> 0:12:44.600 is no evidence of this However, beyond scurrulous local gossip, 0:12:45.720 --> 0:12:49.439 the truth of Ed's Agnes is just one more unresolved 0:12:49.520 --> 0:12:53.720 chapter in his story. Whether she was an authentic lost love, 0:12:54.200 --> 0:12:58.080 a mythicized piece of Ed's past, or just a cynical 0:12:58.320 --> 0:13:09.360 narrative construction, you shall likely never know. What is certain 0:13:09.440 --> 0:13:12.800 about Edward Leedskownen is that he was a well known 0:13:12.920 --> 0:13:17.240 and generally well liked member of the local community. People 0:13:17.280 --> 0:13:20.280 would often go to his place to socialize, where he'd 0:13:20.320 --> 0:13:25.320 hold cookouts and would welcome them generously. After his itinerant 0:13:25.360 --> 0:13:28.880 start in America, it seemed as if ed had finally 0:13:28.920 --> 0:13:32.640 found a place to call home. But by nineteen thirty seven, 0:13:33.080 --> 0:13:36.600 Ed was once again looking to move, and just as 0:13:36.600 --> 0:13:39.240 he had built it all on his own, he would 0:13:39.280 --> 0:13:44.640 move it with the same mystifying independence. Ed paid just 0:13:44.840 --> 0:13:47.840 ten dollars for the ten acre plot that would become 0:13:47.880 --> 0:13:52.680 known forevermore as Coral Castle. It wasn't far away, in 0:13:52.760 --> 0:13:56.560 the nearby town of Homestead. But when you're transporting over 0:13:56.600 --> 0:14:01.400 a thousand tons of stone any distance at all problem, 0:14:01.720 --> 0:14:05.560 and that problem is multiplied by magnitudes when said stones 0:14:05.640 --> 0:14:08.760 weigh enough to blow out the tires of most vehicles. 0:14:10.559 --> 0:14:15.520 Ed approached the issue with his trademark homespun innovation. First, 0:14:15.559 --> 0:14:18.480 he built a trailer from the chassis of a junked truck, 0:14:18.800 --> 0:14:23.359 over which he laid thick boards with the weight then spread. 0:14:23.480 --> 0:14:26.560 The trailer could support even the heaviest of his stones. 0:14:27.440 --> 0:14:30.160 With that in place, he sought the only help he 0:14:30.240 --> 0:14:34.720 ever solicited from a local farmer named Bob Biggers. It 0:14:34.840 --> 0:14:38.200 was Biggers who owned the solid tied tractor capable of 0:14:38.240 --> 0:14:41.720 pulling the burdened trailer up the highway to the new site, 0:14:42.160 --> 0:14:46.560 which he did repeatedly until every single stone was relocated 0:14:46.680 --> 0:14:51.320 from Florida City to Homestead. But Bob never saw how 0:14:51.360 --> 0:14:55.200 the stones were loaded and unloaded. All he knew was 0:14:55.200 --> 0:14:58.080 that Ed would call and Bob would then arrive to 0:14:58.200 --> 0:15:02.440 find the trailer already laid with huge blocks at the 0:15:02.480 --> 0:15:05.560 other end. Ed would thank him and ask him to 0:15:05.600 --> 0:15:08.560 come back in two or three days, by which time 0:15:08.640 --> 0:15:11.320 the trailer would be empty and the stones would be 0:15:11.360 --> 0:15:15.520 in their new and final position. How Ed managed this 0:15:15.960 --> 0:15:21.320 with no help or industrial equipment, Bob couldn't say. Ed's 0:15:21.360 --> 0:15:25.280 later biographer Rville Irwin was just fourteen at the time 0:15:25.600 --> 0:15:28.520 and remembers asking Ed how long it would take him 0:15:28.600 --> 0:15:33.400 to move his entire castle. According to Orville, Ed smiled 0:15:33.440 --> 0:15:37.720 a peculiar smile and simply replied, it'll take a long time, 0:15:38.280 --> 0:15:42.560 but I'll do it. By mid nineteen thirty nine, Ed's 0:15:42.720 --> 0:15:47.680 entire complex sat in its new grounds. The relocation is 0:15:47.720 --> 0:15:52.160 commonly attributed to his need for privacy. Supposedly, word had 0:15:52.160 --> 0:15:55.960 gotten around about plans for a new housing development, and 0:15:56.280 --> 0:15:59.400 Ed wanted to escape the prying eyes of all those 0:15:59.440 --> 0:16:04.560 new neighbors. In truth, Ed lived in a relatively isolated 0:16:04.600 --> 0:16:08.120 stretch on the edge of town, and even now, nearly 0:16:08.160 --> 0:16:13.320 a century later, it remains largely undeveloped. Would he really 0:16:13.400 --> 0:16:16.440 have gone to the colossal task of moving over a 0:16:16.560 --> 0:16:20.560 thousand tons of stone just on the basis of a rumor. 0:16:27.760 --> 0:16:31.280 In his nineteen ninety six biography of Ed, mister cant 0:16:31.440 --> 0:16:36.120 is Dead, Awvial Irwin opines that his move was motivated 0:16:36.200 --> 0:16:39.400 by far more business minded interests, and that he had 0:16:39.520 --> 0:16:42.880 drained his pool of visitors, and the mere two acres 0:16:42.920 --> 0:16:46.680 of his previous home were inconveniently placed to attract more. 0:16:47.760 --> 0:16:52.080 The new site certainly solved that problem. Located in the 0:16:52.080 --> 0:16:55.200 town of Homestead, just off Highway One. It was in 0:16:55.240 --> 0:16:58.640 a prime position to grab the attention of travelers eager 0:16:58.680 --> 0:17:01.520 for a quick distraction on their way to the Everglades 0:17:01.680 --> 0:17:05.239 or the Florida Keys. It was also five times the 0:17:05.280 --> 0:17:08.320 size of his original site, which allowed Ed to keep 0:17:08.359 --> 0:17:13.359 expanding his megalithic work. Indeed, another theory for the move 0:17:13.720 --> 0:17:16.679 is that Ed had exhausted the available oo light in 0:17:16.760 --> 0:17:21.399 Florida City, Whether catalyzed by a fresh location or a 0:17:21.440 --> 0:17:26.320 fresh reserve of stone, He set to work with renewed vigor. First, 0:17:26.480 --> 0:17:30.440 he constructed a set of walls to curtain his new site. 0:17:30.480 --> 0:17:33.840 Each of the three foot thick slabs weighed over six 0:17:34.040 --> 0:17:37.960 tons apiece, and they were assembled with such precision that 0:17:38.119 --> 0:17:42.160 no beam of light shone through them. The new additions 0:17:42.200 --> 0:17:45.200 to the castle were easy to distinguish, as the stone 0:17:45.280 --> 0:17:48.639 quarried at the new site at a darker, grainier tint 0:17:48.840 --> 0:17:51.879 than the near white coral he'd been working with previously. 0:17:52.920 --> 0:17:56.560 They are also even more sophisticated than his earlier pieces. 0:17:57.520 --> 0:18:01.120 The telescope, for instance, is a twenty five foot twenty 0:18:01.200 --> 0:18:05.640 ton column sitting just outside the main wall. It has 0:18:05.720 --> 0:18:10.439 no lenses, mirrors, or magnification of any kind, merely a 0:18:10.560 --> 0:18:14.800 large hole cut near the top with two wires overlapping 0:18:14.960 --> 0:18:18.359 like a gunsight. If a viewer were to look through 0:18:18.400 --> 0:18:21.880 the small holes carved in the curtain wall and line 0:18:21.920 --> 0:18:25.320 up their perspective with the corresponding hole in the telescope, 0:18:25.560 --> 0:18:28.560 they will find the location of the North Star on 0:18:28.680 --> 0:18:31.879 any given night of the year. It's a feat of 0:18:32.000 --> 0:18:37.280 astronomical mapping, not dissimilar from that encoded in Stonehenge or 0:18:37.320 --> 0:18:42.000 other megalithic structures. Another nod to the stars is glimpsed 0:18:42.040 --> 0:18:45.840 in the most photographed of all ed sculptures, the Crescent 0:18:45.880 --> 0:18:49.560 of the East, a moon shaped slab of coral jutting 0:18:49.640 --> 0:18:53.960 up from a low wall. Around it sat similarly massive 0:18:54.040 --> 0:18:59.320 representations of Mars and Saturn. The castle also features a 0:18:59.400 --> 0:19:03.000 large Sunday, carved from a single piece of stone and 0:19:03.119 --> 0:19:06.720 accurate enough to keep time within a few minutes throughout 0:19:06.760 --> 0:19:10.520 the year. And there was the sun Couch, a huge 0:19:10.600 --> 0:19:14.080 circular stone bed that could swivel at a touch to 0:19:14.119 --> 0:19:18.119 face the sun throughout the day. It's this bet that 0:19:18.200 --> 0:19:22.120 the writer Joe Bullet had suggested ed used to aid 0:19:22.160 --> 0:19:27.320 his recovery from TB through self administered sun therapy. But 0:19:27.440 --> 0:19:30.840 the greatest mysteries both of the man and his work 0:19:31.400 --> 0:19:44.760 were found in the structure known as the Tower. The 0:19:44.880 --> 0:19:49.600 tower is where Ed lived, worked and pursued his strange 0:19:49.760 --> 0:19:54.440 scientific theories, and it's where the story of Ed slides 0:19:54.480 --> 0:19:59.240 into the truly unfathomable. The tower itself is just one 0:19:59.320 --> 0:20:04.320 more confidence with the seemingly superhuman. It is built from 0:20:04.359 --> 0:20:08.120 blocks weighing five to ten tons and roofed with thirty 0:20:08.280 --> 0:20:13.080 one ton blocks. Inside a staircase winds up to Ed's 0:20:13.119 --> 0:20:17.400 living quarters, where his bed hung suspended from the ceiling 0:20:17.480 --> 0:20:20.760 on chains allowing him to adjust the angle and height 0:20:20.920 --> 0:20:26.399 to his whim. Designed to mitigate Ed's ongoing struggles with tuberculosis, 0:20:26.920 --> 0:20:32.720 as elevated sleeping upright can help reduce breathing difficulties. Ed 0:20:32.920 --> 0:20:35.840 liked to claim that he was entirely cured of the disease, 0:20:36.480 --> 0:20:39.200 but both the nature of his sleeping arrangements and his 0:20:39.359 --> 0:20:44.720 steadily declining health suggest otherwise. It's mystery enough that he 0:20:44.800 --> 0:20:49.320 lasted as long as he did. It's the ground floor workshop, however, 0:20:49.560 --> 0:20:54.280 that contains the apparatus most central to the legends circling 0:20:54.560 --> 0:20:59.960 Ed leeds gownen there Ed stored his radio and its generation, 0:21:00.720 --> 0:21:03.760 both of which play a part in the more esoteric 0:21:03.840 --> 0:21:09.240 theories about Coral Castle. Some have proposed that Ed's homemade 0:21:09.320 --> 0:21:14.760 radio was used to contact extraterrestrial support. They point to 0:21:14.800 --> 0:21:18.840 the surprising strength of his simple arrangement made from copper 0:21:18.880 --> 0:21:22.479 wire and a mason jar, and when people queried how 0:21:22.520 --> 0:21:26.360 he'd accomplish so much, with an enigmatic smile, Ed would 0:21:26.400 --> 0:21:31.840 simply reply, I know the secrets of the ancient Egyptians. Certainly, 0:21:31.920 --> 0:21:36.240 for conspiracy theorists comparing Coral Castle to the Pyramids of 0:21:36.280 --> 0:21:41.760 Gezer or other mysterious ancient sites, extraterrestrial help is a 0:21:41.800 --> 0:21:46.680 tantalizing prospect. Some even suggest that Ed himself was an 0:21:46.680 --> 0:21:49.720 alien who'd come to Earth with all the knowledge of 0:21:49.760 --> 0:21:53.800 the heavens, though why he would use such universal wisdom 0:21:54.040 --> 0:21:59.680 to build a coral castle in Florida remains to be answered. 0:22:00.000 --> 0:22:03.679 The generator, however, is implicated in the most obscure theory 0:22:03.880 --> 0:22:09.120 about Coral Castle, one based on Ed's own scientific reasoning, 0:22:10.160 --> 0:22:13.960 as we briefly covered in Part one. In nineteen thirty six, 0:22:14.680 --> 0:22:19.320 Ed published a pamphlet concerning electromagnetism and the True nature 0:22:19.400 --> 0:22:24.720 of matter, In Ed's hypothesis, it is magnets, not atoms, 0:22:24.960 --> 0:22:28.560 that are the fundamental building blocks of the universe, that 0:22:28.640 --> 0:22:33.119 everything that is made up of subatomic magnets, each with 0:22:33.240 --> 0:22:37.800 their own north and south pole. Gravity, to Ed's mind, 0:22:38.280 --> 0:22:42.119 was simply the pull of the Earth's vast magnetic core 0:22:42.359 --> 0:22:46.159 on this magnetic fabric of the world. And if we 0:22:46.240 --> 0:22:50.679 follow Ed's logic far enough by reversing the polarity of matter, 0:22:51.119 --> 0:22:54.680 he would then be able to counteract the gravitational pull 0:22:54.760 --> 0:22:58.600 of the Earth. But to do so, as Ed pointed out, 0:22:58.840 --> 0:23:03.159 would require a great deal of consistent power. Could the 0:23:03.240 --> 0:23:07.399 answer be found in that strange black box spotted on 0:23:07.480 --> 0:23:19.080 top of its tripod? Edward Leedscowdin's writings are so convoluted 0:23:19.119 --> 0:23:22.800 and compromised by his middling grasp of English that it's 0:23:22.840 --> 0:23:26.040 difficult for the lay person to follow. Some of those 0:23:26.080 --> 0:23:29.120 who claim to understand it believe that not only did 0:23:29.320 --> 0:23:33.360 Edward manufacture a way to make his coral monoliths levitate, 0:23:33.840 --> 0:23:38.400 he had also invented a perpetual motion machine, a device that, 0:23:38.600 --> 0:23:43.120 once set in motion, would spin, whir or tick forever, 0:23:43.680 --> 0:23:48.639 drawing no fuel, losing no energy, and producing endless work, 0:23:49.080 --> 0:23:52.440 as if it had stolen a secret from the universe itself. 0:23:53.840 --> 0:23:59.280 Inventors have been chasing this impossible dream for centuries. Ancient sketches, 0:24:00.000 --> 0:24:05.920 mysterious devices, whispers in dusty manuscripts all hint at humanity's 0:24:05.960 --> 0:24:09.920 obsession with creating a machine that could self run forever. 0:24:10.960 --> 0:24:13.960 If Ed had indeed made one, it would have required 0:24:14.000 --> 0:24:17.240 breaking not only the first but also the second law 0:24:17.320 --> 0:24:21.960 of thermodynamics, and bending the very fabric of reality as 0:24:21.960 --> 0:24:25.960 we know it. Some have suggested this is exactly what 0:24:26.080 --> 0:24:29.480 he was hiding in his black box. Others have suggested 0:24:29.520 --> 0:24:32.919 it was in fact his generator. Though it's a humble 0:24:32.960 --> 0:24:37.360 looking combination of flywheel and handle. The theory suggests that 0:24:37.600 --> 0:24:41.080 Ed could have attached strong magnets to the wheel, then 0:24:41.240 --> 0:24:46.640 when it was turned, electromagnetic forces would ricochet between these magnets, 0:24:46.720 --> 0:24:51.639 creating perpetual motion and a limitless energy source. All of 0:24:51.640 --> 0:24:55.360 this speculation was put to work in the claim that 0:24:55.640 --> 0:25:01.080 Ed had somehow managed to overcome gravity. It sounds dubious 0:25:01.119 --> 0:25:05.159 at best, but one local legend commonly retold in the 0:25:05.240 --> 0:25:10.240 years before Ed published his magnetic hypothesis, offers a possible 0:25:10.320 --> 0:25:14.680 glimpse into the truth. One night under the silvery glow 0:25:14.760 --> 0:25:17.960 of the moon. As the story goes, a group of 0:25:18.040 --> 0:25:23.040 teenagers spotted Ed walking across its land, singing to himself, 0:25:23.320 --> 0:25:27.159 while a huge stone appeared to be levitating right in 0:25:27.160 --> 0:25:31.480 front of him. Without the mirror's touch, the teen said 0:25:31.960 --> 0:25:35.159 he was able to move it along and simply float 0:25:35.280 --> 0:25:39.880 it into place. There is one stone at Coral Castle 0:25:40.200 --> 0:25:44.399 that tour guides use even today to prompt questions about 0:25:44.600 --> 0:25:49.600 Ed's secret understanding of strange forces. At the very start 0:25:49.680 --> 0:25:53.560 of a modern tour, visitors will encounter the three ton gait. 0:25:54.280 --> 0:25:58.200 This is a thick, triangular slab that, despite its weight 0:25:58.280 --> 0:26:02.440 and bulk, is balanced gently on a car axle. Tour 0:26:02.480 --> 0:26:05.439 guides will ask for a volunteer to step forward and 0:26:05.640 --> 0:26:09.240 raise their arm above the stone. When they do, the 0:26:09.320 --> 0:26:12.960 guide will try and fail to push the guests armed down. 0:26:13.880 --> 0:26:16.040 The guide will then tilt the angle of the three 0:26:16.080 --> 0:26:20.359 ton git on its axle and try again. Supposedly, this 0:26:20.520 --> 0:26:25.760 time the visitor's arm will drop without resistance. This experiment 0:26:25.880 --> 0:26:29.200 is offered as proof that the stones at Coral Castle 0:26:29.560 --> 0:26:34.360 have a strange effect on the energy fields around them. 0:26:40.160 --> 0:26:42.879 By the end of the nineteen forties, Ed was in 0:26:42.920 --> 0:26:47.159 his early sixties and his health was in steady decline. 0:26:47.200 --> 0:26:50.920 He was gaunt and half starved on a self administered 0:26:50.960 --> 0:26:55.520 diet of crackers and sardines, and loneliness had taken its 0:26:55.560 --> 0:26:59.920 own toll. The end was imminent. For a man who 0:27:00.119 --> 0:27:03.480 lived a life cloaked in mystery and law, why would 0:27:03.560 --> 0:27:07.720 death be any different. The oft told tale of Ed's 0:27:07.720 --> 0:27:11.040 final days is that he simply hung a sign on 0:27:11.119 --> 0:27:15.200 the doorway of Coral Castle that read going to the hospital, 0:27:15.760 --> 0:27:20.040 where he died three days later. The truth is a 0:27:20.040 --> 0:27:25.320 little less laconic. Ed checked himself into Miami's Jackson Hospital, 0:27:25.560 --> 0:27:29.360 where he deteriorated over a span of four weeks. When 0:27:29.400 --> 0:27:34.040 he finally slipped away, the cause of death was registered 0:27:34.119 --> 0:27:37.760 as an acute kidney infection which had turned to sepsis. 0:27:38.960 --> 0:27:41.840 It was a fittingly lonely end, perhaps for a man 0:27:41.880 --> 0:27:45.919 whose life was always governed by a degree of solitary sadness. 0:27:46.480 --> 0:27:49.520 But it was also a life that lasted far longer 0:27:49.600 --> 0:27:54.400 than medical experts had ever thought possible, which included achievements 0:27:55.000 --> 0:27:58.360 that no one has ever been able to sufficiently explain. 0:27:59.520 --> 0:28:02.639 Some say that the mysteries of the man and his 0:28:02.840 --> 0:28:07.240 Castle are entwined that Edward Leads Gownman emerged from the 0:28:07.280 --> 0:28:11.479 anonymity of America in search of natural powers that allowed 0:28:11.560 --> 0:28:14.680 him to live longer and do more than anyone could 0:28:14.720 --> 0:28:19.680 have believed. Such a theory takes us full circle back 0:28:19.720 --> 0:28:23.080 to where we began in episode one, A green corner 0:28:23.119 --> 0:28:28.160 of Southwest England and the Puzzle of Stonehenge. It's long 0:28:28.200 --> 0:28:31.960 been argued that Stonehenge sits on an important junction of 0:28:32.040 --> 0:28:36.480 lay lines, and that that undeciphered power source holds an 0:28:36.520 --> 0:28:40.360 answer to both the purpose and construction of the monument, 0:28:40.960 --> 0:28:43.800 that it was built there to honor the power, and 0:28:43.920 --> 0:28:48.520 because the power allowed it to be built. Lay Lines 0:28:48.560 --> 0:28:52.880 are a global concept. If they do indeed exist, then 0:28:52.960 --> 0:28:56.800 they gird the entire earth, and in a quiet corner 0:28:56.840 --> 0:29:00.760 of southern Florida, some believe there is another vergence of 0:29:00.800 --> 0:29:04.880 the lines right in the town of Homestead, home to 0:29:05.080 --> 0:29:10.480 Edward Leeds Scownden's Coral Castle. For what it's worth, Homestead 0:29:10.720 --> 0:29:13.520 just so happens to more or less mark the edge 0:29:13.560 --> 0:29:17.760 of one particular region famous for its association with unseen 0:29:17.840 --> 0:29:22.320 forces and inexplicable phenomena, a place where the rules of 0:29:22.360 --> 0:29:28.560