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Speaker 1: Welcome to Aaron Benky's Cabinet of Curiosities, a production of

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Speaker 1: I Heart Radio and Grim and Mild. Our world is

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Speaker 1: full of the unexplainable, and if history is an open book,

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Speaker 1: all of these amazing tales are right there on display,

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Speaker 1: just waiting for us to explore. Welcome to the Cabinet

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Speaker 1: of Curiosities. Travel anywhere in the world and you will

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Speaker 1: learn just how different other cultures can be from our own.

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Speaker 1: Nowhere is this more evident than in their holidays. For example,

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Speaker 1: Christmas isn't widely celebrated in Japan. Only one percent of

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Speaker 1: the population there identifies as Christian, and those who participate

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Speaker 1: in the festivities do so differently from other countries. In Japan,

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Speaker 1: many people don't cook a turkey with all the trimmings

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Speaker 1: for their Christmas inner. They go to KFC. The tradition

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Speaker 1: started back in nineteen seventy four, when the fast food

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Speaker 1: chain began offering a holiday themed meal based on the

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Speaker 1: standard fair that Americans ate at holiday time. Almost fifty

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Speaker 1: years later, KFC is still so popular during Christmas that

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Speaker 1: orders must be placed months in advance. Mexico, on the

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Speaker 1: other hand, is home to a yearly festival every December,

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Speaker 1: known as the Night of the Radishes. The purple root

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Speaker 1: vegetables are grown specifically for this three day events and

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Speaker 1: are carved into elaborate statues and dioramas. Carvings are begun

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Speaker 1: the morning of December twenty three and finished by that

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Speaker 1: evening so everyone can enjoy the finished artworks over the

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Speaker 1: next few days. Meanwhile, a very different kind of holiday

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Speaker 1: is celebrated in Netherland, Colorado. It's centered around a man

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Speaker 1: named Bretto Morstol, otherwise known as Grandpa Bretto. Grandpa Bretto

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Speaker 1: was born and raised in Norway. He was a fan

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Speaker 1: of the outdoors and spent much of his time hiking

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Speaker 1: and fishing during the warmer months, while skiing in the winter.

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Speaker 1: He loved being outside so much he made his living

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Speaker 1: at it for thirty years as a park director where

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Speaker 1: he lived. Grandpa Bretto sadly died in nine of a

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Speaker 1: heart condition, but his family wasn't quite ready to lose

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Speaker 1: him just yet. They had him put on ice and

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Speaker 1: shipped to Oakland, California, where a cryonics facility was standing

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Speaker 1: by to preserve his body with liquid nitrogen. He stayed

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Speaker 1: there suspended for four years until his body was reclaimed

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Speaker 1: by his daughter and her son, who had been working

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Speaker 1: on a cryonics initiative of their own in Colorado. Their

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Speaker 1: efforts didn't last long, however. The grandson was deported from

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Speaker 1: the u S after his visa had expired, and so

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Speaker 1: Grandpa Bretto's daughter Odd hid her father's frozen body in

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Speaker 1: a shed behind her house, packed with dry ice. Things

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Speaker 1: only went from bad to worse after that. She had

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Speaker 1: already lost her son and now she was in danger

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Speaker 1: of losing her father again. The authorities evicted Odd from

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Speaker 1: her home for living there without any running water or electricity.

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Speaker 1: Without her there to monitor the condition of her father's body,

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Speaker 1: she was worried he would fall out and decompose, so

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Speaker 1: the city gave her an ultimatum disposed of the corpse

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Speaker 1: or spend ten days in jail. In fact, the whole

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Speaker 1: ordeal had forced to change to the city's local ordinances.

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Speaker 1: From that point forward, no resident of Netherland, Colorado would

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Speaker 1: be allowed to store a dead body on their property.

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Speaker 1: That went for beloved pets too. Odd and Grandpa Bretto, however,

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Speaker 1: were the exception. Because the story had brought so much

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Speaker 1: unwanted attention to the city, they allowed the deceased patriarch

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Speaker 1: to stay in his shed. Unfortunately, there was still the

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Speaker 1: matter of his upkeep, which required considerable amounts of dry

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Speaker 1: ice to preserve his condition. Luckily for him, that also

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Speaker 1: had been taken care of. His grandson had put out

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Speaker 1: a classified ad seeking to hire someone to tend to

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Speaker 1: his grandfather's frozen body. Bow Schaffer, the CEO of a

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Speaker 1: local cryonics company, answered the call. He started coming to

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Speaker 1: the shed once a month along with several volunteers and

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Speaker 1: six hundred pounds of dry ice, which they would pack

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Speaker 1: against Grandpa Bretto's coffin, keeping him at a frosty minus

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Speaker 1: sixty degrees fahrenheit. The manufacturer of the shed he'd been

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Speaker 1: stored in also got involved and built Grandpa Bretto a

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Speaker 1: new enclosure that would better facilitate Shaffer's preservation efforts. All

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Speaker 1: of this fuss turned Grandpa Bretto into a local celebrity,

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Speaker 1: so much so that in two thousand two a holiday

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Speaker 1: was started in his name, well sort of. Frozen Dead

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Speaker 1: Guy Days is a two day festival celebrated quite appropriately

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Speaker 1: over a weekend in March, just as winter begins to

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Speaker 1: thaw and spring buds bloom. Among the many activities. There

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Speaker 1: are live music performances, tours of Grandpa Bretto's shed, coffin races,

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Speaker 1: and even a Grandpa Bretto lookalike contest. A local ice

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Speaker 1: cream company also sells a special flavor aptlete called Frozen

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Speaker 1: Dead Guy, made of dark blue ice cream to symbolize

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Speaker 1: the festival's namesake. Crushed up oreos for the dirt and

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Speaker 1: sour gummy worms crawling out of it. Yeah, Frozen Dead

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Speaker 1: Guy Days has been known to draw as many as

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Speaker 1: twenty five thousand people to Netherland, Colorado, making the icy

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Speaker 1: celebration the hottest ticket in town. You might not realize

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Speaker 1: it at first, but the buildings and rooms we passed

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Speaker 1: through every day are home to all kinds of secrets.

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Speaker 1: Walk the streets of New York or Philadelphia and you

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Speaker 1: might notice symbols on the buildings. A letter g or

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Speaker 1: an hour glass could indicate that it had been built

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Speaker 1: by Freemasons. Freemasons have become the stuff of legend, who

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Speaker 1: often find themselves the subject of countless books and films,

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Speaker 1: and for good reason. Lost treasures, the knights, templar, secret rooms,

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Speaker 1: and passageways. It's enough to warrant an action movie or

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Speaker 1: three for a sculpture named John. His status as a

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Speaker 1: Freemason would allow him to build the most important room

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Speaker 1: in America, one that no one would ever see. John

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Speaker 1: was born in eighteen sixty seven in an unincorporated part

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Speaker 1: of the US known as Idaho Territory. He grew up

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Speaker 1: in a family of Mormon polygamists, his father making a

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Speaker 1: living as a talented carpenter. As the family moved around

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Speaker 1: the country, first to Missouri than to Nebraska, John began

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Speaker 1: working with his hands like his father. Eventually he channeled

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Speaker 1: his passion into sculpture. He studied art in both San

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Speaker 1: Francisco and Paris for some time before returning to the

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Speaker 1: US setting up shop in New York City. It wasn't

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Speaker 1: long before one of his sculptures was bought and put

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Speaker 1: on display by the Metropolitan Museum of Art, a first

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Speaker 1: for a living American sculpture. The Church of Saint John

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Speaker 1: the Divine then hired him the craft statues of the

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Speaker 1: Twelve Apostles for the exterior of their cathedral. However, John

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Speaker 1: had greater aspirations. Literally, on the advice of his wife,

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Speaker 1: he turned toward creating massive works, such as a giant

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Speaker 1: bust of President Abraham Lincoln. The marble statue currently sits

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Speaker 1: in the Capital Crypt in Washington, d c. His work

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Speaker 1: only grew from there, and John graduated from Marble to

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Speaker 1: the courts Monza Knighte of Stone Mountain in Georgia. He

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Speaker 1: had been hired by c Helen Plaine, a member of

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Speaker 1: the Knighted Daughters of the Confederacy who wanted to honor

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Speaker 1: her ancestors. She tasked him with carving a gigantic bob

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Speaker 1: relief into its side. John's original plan was to depict

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Speaker 1: a procession of the three most important Confederate leaders of

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Speaker 1: the Civil War, General Stonewall Jackson, Jefferson Davis and General

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Speaker 1: Robert E. Lee, as well as a thousand soldiers behind them,

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Speaker 1: but the project was plagued by issues, mostly monetary, and

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Speaker 1: so John was fired after having only carved out part

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Speaker 1: of Lee's head. He then destroyed his blueprints and models,

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Speaker 1: fleeing to North Carolina to avoid a war that had

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Speaker 1: been issued for his arrest. The rest of the memorial

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Speaker 1: was completed over the next four decades by numerous sculptors

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Speaker 1: and architects, and was finally opened to the public on

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Speaker 1: April fourteenth of nineteen sixty five, exactly one hundred years

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Speaker 1: after Lincoln's assassination. Despite his reputation for arrogance and being

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Speaker 1: difficult to work with, as well as his ties to

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Speaker 1: the Ku Klux Klan, John was still in high demand.

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Speaker 1: A new project on the Horizon would cement his name

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Speaker 1: into the history book as one of the greatest and

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Speaker 1: most problematic sculptors of all time. The task one room,

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Speaker 1: a room that measured a hundred feet long and eighty

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Speaker 1: feet tall. Built into its stone walls, John envisioned brass

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Speaker 1: cabinets meant to house the most important items in American history,

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Speaker 1: namely the Declaration of Independence and the U s Constitution.

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Speaker 1: It was intended to be an ode to American exceptionalism,

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Speaker 1: complete with key events in the country's history carved into

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Speaker 1: the sides, as well as busts of United States presidents, scientists, artists,

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Speaker 1: and industrialists. John and his fellow Freemason started working on

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Speaker 1: it in the summer of nineteen thirty eight, continuing until

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Speaker 1: nineteen forty one, when two major issues brought the project

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Speaker 1: to a halt. For one, the US was entering World

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Speaker 1: War Two and funding was going to dry up for

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Speaker 1: some time. Secondly, John passed away in March of that year.

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Speaker 1: His work would have to be completed without him. Unfortunately,

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Speaker 1: the Hall of Records was abandoned for sixty years. In

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Speaker 1: that time, the scope change cansiderably. For one, it would

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Speaker 1: no longer hold the Declaration of Independence or the Constitution,

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Speaker 1: well not exactly. Instead of the original parchment documents, the

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Speaker 1: Hall of Records contains a single wooden box, inside of

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Speaker 1: which were placed sixteen porcelain plates, and on those plates

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Speaker 1: were written the complete texts of the Constitution, the Bill

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Speaker 1: of Rights, and the Declaration of Independence. The box was

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Speaker 1: then stored in a titanium vault beneath a halfton granite

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Speaker 1: capstone at the hall's entrance. No one is allowed inside

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Speaker 1: the Hall of Records. In fact, most people can't even

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Speaker 1: see it, despite its prominent location. That's because it's creator,

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Speaker 1: John G. Borg Lam, built it right behind Abraham Lincoln's

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Speaker 1: head into the side of Mount Rushmore. I hope you've

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Speaker 1: enjoyed today's guided tour of the Cabinet of Curiosities. Subscribe

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Speaker 1: for free on Apple Podcasts, or learn more about the

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Speaker 1: show by visiting Curiosities podcast dot com. The show was

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Speaker 1: aided by me Aaron Manky in partnership with how Stuff Works,

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Speaker 1: I make another award winning show called Lore, which is

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Speaker 1: a podcast, book series, and television show and you can

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Speaker 1: learn all about it over at the World of Lore

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Speaker 1: dot com. And until next time, stay curious. Ye