1 00:00:03,760 --> 00:00:07,840 Speaker 1: Our world is full of the unexplainable, and if history 2 00:00:08,039 --> 00:00:11,440 Speaker 1: is an open book, all of these amazing tales right 3 00:00:11,520 --> 00:00:16,640 Speaker 1: there on display, just waiting for us to explore. Welcome 4 00:00:17,760 --> 00:00:29,200 Speaker 1: to the cabinet of Curiosities. Moving to a new place 5 00:00:29,240 --> 00:00:31,600 Speaker 1: can be rough. Not only do you have to learn 6 00:00:31,640 --> 00:00:34,280 Speaker 1: a new environment, there is also the hassle of finding 7 00:00:34,400 --> 00:00:38,600 Speaker 1: someplace to live. Baldassar Forestier learned this the hard way 8 00:00:38,680 --> 00:00:41,240 Speaker 1: when he left his home in Italy in nineteen o one. 9 00:00:42,680 --> 00:00:45,760 Speaker 1: Baldassar had begun his life in Sicily in eighteen seventy 10 00:00:45,840 --> 00:00:48,640 Speaker 1: nine before moving to America at the turn of the century. 11 00:00:49,240 --> 00:00:52,040 Speaker 1: He'd had a huge argument with his father about his future. 12 00:00:52,479 --> 00:00:54,920 Speaker 1: His father wanted him to stay in Italy and abide 13 00:00:54,920 --> 00:00:57,560 Speaker 1: by what he thought was best for him, but Baldassar 14 00:00:57,680 --> 00:00:59,959 Speaker 1: had other plans. He wanted to run his own busin 15 00:01:00,080 --> 00:01:03,200 Speaker 1: nous build a life for himself halfway across the world. 16 00:01:03,640 --> 00:01:06,440 Speaker 1: He defined his father's wishes and set off on his 17 00:01:06,520 --> 00:01:11,360 Speaker 1: own for California. He purchased ten acres of farmland in Fresno, 18 00:01:11,560 --> 00:01:14,600 Speaker 1: intent on capitalizing on the warm climate by starting his 19 00:01:14,640 --> 00:01:18,240 Speaker 1: own citrus empire. As he started planting fruit trees and 20 00:01:18,240 --> 00:01:22,160 Speaker 1: cultivating grapevines on his property. However, he noticed two problems 21 00:01:22,160 --> 00:01:25,240 Speaker 1: with his new home. First, it was too hot. The 22 00:01:25,280 --> 00:01:28,280 Speaker 1: temperatures in Fresno during the summer often reached as high 23 00:01:28,280 --> 00:01:31,920 Speaker 1: as one degrees fahrenheit, which made working in the fields 24 00:01:31,959 --> 00:01:36,360 Speaker 1: a grueling endeavor for the new farmer. Second, the land 25 00:01:36,360 --> 00:01:39,760 Speaker 1: he purchased was worthless. The soil was too hard and 26 00:01:39,760 --> 00:01:42,440 Speaker 1: the climate too dry, and not to mention that it 27 00:01:42,480 --> 00:01:45,919 Speaker 1: got so cold during the winter that everything died. Nothing 28 00:01:45,959 --> 00:01:50,480 Speaker 1: could grow in such a harsh environment, but Baldassarre tried anyway. 29 00:01:50,520 --> 00:01:53,720 Speaker 1: All summer, he picked and dug and planted until he 30 00:01:53,720 --> 00:01:58,240 Speaker 1: couldn't take the sun's aggressive heat any longer. Except he 31 00:01:58,280 --> 00:02:02,120 Speaker 1: couldn't retreat to his farmhouse. Air conditioning didn't exist yet, 32 00:02:02,160 --> 00:02:05,160 Speaker 1: so his choices were either to boil in the fields 33 00:02:05,280 --> 00:02:08,360 Speaker 1: or boil in the house. Then he remembered something about 34 00:02:08,360 --> 00:02:10,600 Speaker 1: his home back in Italy, how cool it was in 35 00:02:10,639 --> 00:02:14,840 Speaker 1: the darkened catacombs under the streets. Baldassarre needed some place 36 00:02:14,880 --> 00:02:16,680 Speaker 1: to get out of the heat, and the only way 37 00:02:16,720 --> 00:02:19,200 Speaker 1: he would get one is if he dug it himself, 38 00:02:20,160 --> 00:02:22,880 Speaker 1: which is exactly what he did. He dug himself a 39 00:02:22,919 --> 00:02:25,040 Speaker 1: celler on his land, where he could rest in the 40 00:02:25,080 --> 00:02:27,480 Speaker 1: shade during the middle of the day and then get 41 00:02:27,520 --> 00:02:30,400 Speaker 1: back to work when things cooled down. He loved it. 42 00:02:30,840 --> 00:02:35,200 Speaker 1: Ducking underground dropped his surrounding temperature by twenty degrees, and 43 00:02:35,560 --> 00:02:38,080 Speaker 1: it gave him an idea. What if he could do 44 00:02:38,160 --> 00:02:41,200 Speaker 1: more than rest in his little spot. What if he 45 00:02:41,240 --> 00:02:43,840 Speaker 1: could not only beat the heat but also mother nature 46 00:02:43,919 --> 00:02:47,360 Speaker 1: at her own game. The farmland above ground may have 47 00:02:47,400 --> 00:02:50,720 Speaker 1: been worthless, but citrus had a better chance down where 48 00:02:50,720 --> 00:02:53,000 Speaker 1: it was cooler and the fruit could be protected from 49 00:02:53,040 --> 00:02:56,360 Speaker 1: things like wind and frost during the winter months. He 50 00:02:56,520 --> 00:02:59,400 Speaker 1: dug a little more, and a little more after that. 51 00:03:00,080 --> 00:03:02,800 Speaker 1: He even got his brother to help him. Eventually he 52 00:03:02,880 --> 00:03:04,800 Speaker 1: was able to carve out a spot big enough to 53 00:03:04,840 --> 00:03:08,359 Speaker 1: plant a citrus growth, with clear access to sunlight and rain, 54 00:03:08,800 --> 00:03:13,280 Speaker 1: but shielded from animals, human hands, and troublesome weather. And 55 00:03:13,400 --> 00:03:18,600 Speaker 1: it worked. Oranges, lemons, grapefruits, and grapes flourished in the cool, 56 00:03:18,720 --> 00:03:22,160 Speaker 1: damp environment the foresti Are brothers had dug out. Not 57 00:03:22,320 --> 00:03:26,399 Speaker 1: content with having fixed his farming situation, though, Baltazar set 58 00:03:26,400 --> 00:03:29,400 Speaker 1: out to fix his living situation as well. He built 59 00:03:29,480 --> 00:03:33,240 Speaker 1: himself a new house on the property bigger and properly cooled. 60 00:03:33,240 --> 00:03:37,880 Speaker 1: For those sweltering summer months. He crafted new patios and 61 00:03:37,880 --> 00:03:41,000 Speaker 1: grottoes in which to relax away from the heat. Winding 62 00:03:41,080 --> 00:03:45,240 Speaker 1: hallways connected sixty five rooms, each adorned with custom stone 63 00:03:45,240 --> 00:03:48,040 Speaker 1: work and greenery, and he was able to enjoy it 64 00:03:48,120 --> 00:03:52,040 Speaker 1: throughout the building process, which took over forty years to complete. 65 00:03:53,040 --> 00:03:55,560 Speaker 1: And forty years does sound like a long time to 66 00:03:55,560 --> 00:03:58,320 Speaker 1: build a house, but that's because it isn't easy digging 67 00:03:58,360 --> 00:04:01,400 Speaker 1: and moving ten acres were of dirt, even with the 68 00:04:01,440 --> 00:04:03,960 Speaker 1: help of your own brother. Rather than build his new 69 00:04:04,000 --> 00:04:07,280 Speaker 1: home on top of his land, Baldassarre kept digging out 70 00:04:07,360 --> 00:04:10,320 Speaker 1: his space away from the heat. He took his love 71 00:04:10,360 --> 00:04:13,040 Speaker 1: for the Italian catacombs even further by digging out a 72 00:04:13,160 --> 00:04:16,360 Speaker 1: kitchen complete with a wood burning stove, as well as 73 00:04:16,360 --> 00:04:19,760 Speaker 1: a bathroom and multiple bedrooms. He turned the citrus grove 74 00:04:19,839 --> 00:04:23,200 Speaker 1: into an open courtyard with over twenty varieties of trees, 75 00:04:23,640 --> 00:04:28,280 Speaker 1: and they're still growing and producing fruit today. The foresti 76 00:04:28,320 --> 00:04:32,480 Speaker 1: are underground gardens are a tourist destination today, maintained by 77 00:04:32,560 --> 00:04:36,800 Speaker 1: Baldassare's descendants. The location has even become a popular destination 78 00:04:36,920 --> 00:04:40,320 Speaker 1: for weddings. If only Baldassarre had lived long enough to 79 00:04:40,360 --> 00:04:44,440 Speaker 1: see what he'd created become so popular. After all, it 80 00:04:44,520 --> 00:04:47,279 Speaker 1: was he who said, to make something with a lot 81 00:04:47,279 --> 00:04:50,640 Speaker 1: of money, that is easy. But to make something out 82 00:04:50,680 --> 00:05:08,360 Speaker 1: of nothing, now, that is something. You might be surprised 83 00:05:08,360 --> 00:05:11,040 Speaker 1: to learn that what we know about the ocean pales 84 00:05:11,080 --> 00:05:14,000 Speaker 1: in comparison to what we know about space. Even though 85 00:05:14,040 --> 00:05:16,880 Speaker 1: over seventy of the Earth is covered by water, we've 86 00:05:16,880 --> 00:05:20,039 Speaker 1: only explored roughly five percent of it. A total of 87 00:05:20,160 --> 00:05:22,359 Speaker 1: three people have been to the deepest part of the 88 00:05:22,360 --> 00:05:25,679 Speaker 1: ocean in the Mariana Trench, while four times that number 89 00:05:25,720 --> 00:05:29,080 Speaker 1: have been to the Moon. And given our preoccupation with 90 00:05:29,160 --> 00:05:31,880 Speaker 1: life on other planets, it's no wonder we've spent most 91 00:05:31,920 --> 00:05:34,600 Speaker 1: of our time and energy focusing on what's above us 92 00:05:35,000 --> 00:05:38,000 Speaker 1: instead of what's below us. Just think what might have 93 00:05:38,040 --> 00:05:42,200 Speaker 1: happened or not happened, had deep sea fortune hunter Peter 94 00:05:42,360 --> 00:05:47,000 Speaker 1: Lindbergh not been focused on the ocean floor. In the 95 00:05:47,040 --> 00:05:49,960 Speaker 1: summer of two thousand eleven, Lindbergh and his Ocean X 96 00:05:50,040 --> 00:05:52,960 Speaker 1: team were on a mission. They've been scouring the depths 97 00:05:52,960 --> 00:05:55,919 Speaker 1: of the Baltic Sea between Sweden and Finland in search 98 00:05:56,000 --> 00:05:59,479 Speaker 1: of sunken ships. The treasurers they were seeking weren't gold 99 00:05:59,600 --> 00:06:03,120 Speaker 1: or jewel, as though the wine and other spirits. As 100 00:06:03,120 --> 00:06:06,800 Speaker 1: it turns out, alcohol recovered from shipwrecks sells for a 101 00:06:06,800 --> 00:06:11,080 Speaker 1: pretty penny. They've been sweeping the area for hours at 102 00:06:11,120 --> 00:06:14,840 Speaker 1: two five ft below, but the team's sonar had come 103 00:06:14,880 --> 00:06:18,240 Speaker 1: up empty. They couldn't give up, though, not yet, not 104 00:06:18,400 --> 00:06:22,080 Speaker 1: with the jackpot awaiting them aboard some sunken wreck, so 105 00:06:22,120 --> 00:06:25,320 Speaker 1: they kept at it, watching for any changes on the screen. 106 00:06:25,960 --> 00:06:31,800 Speaker 1: When suddenly something appeared. It was big and round, and 107 00:06:31,839 --> 00:06:34,760 Speaker 1: it didn't make a lick of sense. The object measured 108 00:06:34,800 --> 00:06:37,599 Speaker 1: sixty feet in diameter, and there was a deep track 109 00:06:37,640 --> 00:06:40,440 Speaker 1: in the ground behind it. Whatever it was, it had 110 00:06:40,440 --> 00:06:43,600 Speaker 1: traveled roughly a thousand feet before coming to a stop. 111 00:06:44,800 --> 00:06:48,200 Speaker 1: The divers took their finding public. Nothing they had encountered 112 00:06:48,240 --> 00:06:51,760 Speaker 1: at that depth had that shape. It was unnaturally circular, 113 00:06:51,920 --> 00:06:54,440 Speaker 1: and its size should have prevented it from moving so 114 00:06:54,560 --> 00:06:58,159 Speaker 1: far along the ocean floor. Lindbergh wondered if maybe it 115 00:06:58,200 --> 00:07:01,360 Speaker 1: hadn't come from nature. May be it hadn't come from 116 00:07:01,360 --> 00:07:05,760 Speaker 1: Earth at all. While geologists have claimed the object is 117 00:07:05,760 --> 00:07:08,760 Speaker 1: nothing more than a very large rock formation that hasn't 118 00:07:08,760 --> 00:07:12,800 Speaker 1: stopped enthusiasts and conspiracy theorists from speculating about what has 119 00:07:12,840 --> 00:07:17,040 Speaker 1: become known as the Baltic Sea anomaly. Tabloids and websites 120 00:07:17,080 --> 00:07:20,480 Speaker 1: picked up lindbergh story, immediately taking their cues from him 121 00:07:20,520 --> 00:07:24,640 Speaker 1: and reporting the mysterious object as a sunken UFO, and 122 00:07:24,720 --> 00:07:27,400 Speaker 1: if that had been the only instance of such an oddity, 123 00:07:27,760 --> 00:07:30,920 Speaker 1: the story might have died there. However, what they found 124 00:07:30,960 --> 00:07:33,320 Speaker 1: in the Baltic Sea was not the only one of 125 00:07:33,360 --> 00:07:37,840 Speaker 1: its kind. Online groups that investigate u s O s 126 00:07:38,200 --> 00:07:43,120 Speaker 1: unidentified submersible objects stumbled upon something similar and equally as 127 00:07:43,120 --> 00:07:47,880 Speaker 1: strange as Lindbergh's anomaly. USO enthusiasts had been trawling images 128 00:07:47,920 --> 00:07:50,680 Speaker 1: of the ocean floor in Google Earth when they too 129 00:07:50,800 --> 00:07:54,240 Speaker 1: noticed something disc shaped. This discovery happened to be at 130 00:07:54,240 --> 00:07:57,240 Speaker 1: the bottom of the North Atlantic. It measured almost three 131 00:07:57,360 --> 00:08:00,280 Speaker 1: miles wide, and there was a forty six mile long 132 00:08:00,360 --> 00:08:05,760 Speaker 1: trench behind it. Yep, the objects had also moved again. 133 00:08:05,800 --> 00:08:09,600 Speaker 1: Experts were quick to dispel any notions of extraterrestrial activity. 134 00:08:09,960 --> 00:08:12,920 Speaker 1: Their story was and will continue to be that the 135 00:08:12,960 --> 00:08:15,880 Speaker 1: object is just a large rock of some kind, But 136 00:08:15,960 --> 00:08:19,320 Speaker 1: that hasn't been enough to dissuade the hopefuls. These objects 137 00:08:19,360 --> 00:08:23,320 Speaker 1: are impossibly circular, so much so that they don't look organic, 138 00:08:23,720 --> 00:08:26,000 Speaker 1: and the one in the North Atlantic hasn't shown any 139 00:08:26,040 --> 00:08:29,960 Speaker 1: signs of stopping its migration. Why would something so large 140 00:08:29,960 --> 00:08:33,360 Speaker 1: and heavy continue to move as far as it has already? 141 00:08:34,760 --> 00:08:37,839 Speaker 1: The answer is no one knows for certain, but it 142 00:08:37,880 --> 00:08:41,640 Speaker 1: doesn't look like any submarines are planning an expedition anytime soon. 143 00:08:42,400 --> 00:08:47,600 Speaker 1: Until then, these underwater anomalies will continue to confound skeptics 144 00:08:47,679 --> 00:08:51,520 Speaker 1: and inspire dreamers. There's still a good chance that life 145 00:08:51,520 --> 00:08:54,280 Speaker 1: exists beyond our planet. We just don't know where we'll 146 00:08:54,320 --> 00:08:57,719 Speaker 1: find it. We'll continue looking among the stars, but we 147 00:08:57,760 --> 00:09:01,080 Speaker 1: shouldn't forget that there's a whole world to explore right 148 00:09:01,120 --> 00:09:05,280 Speaker 1: here on this rock we call home. Maybe all we 149 00:09:05,360 --> 00:09:09,200 Speaker 1: need to do is look a little closer below the surface. 150 00:09:12,880 --> 00:09:15,560 Speaker 1: I hope you've enjoyed today's guided tour of the Cabinet 151 00:09:15,600 --> 00:09:19,480 Speaker 1: of Curiosities. Subscribe for free on Apple Podcasts, or learn 152 00:09:19,520 --> 00:09:24,120 Speaker 1: more about the show by visiting Curiosities podcast dot com. 153 00:09:24,120 --> 00:09:27,680 Speaker 1: The show was created by me Aaron Manky in partnership 154 00:09:27,720 --> 00:09:31,000 Speaker 1: with how Stuff Works. I make another award winning show 155 00:09:31,120 --> 00:09:34,920 Speaker 1: called Lore which is a podcast, book series, and television 156 00:09:34,960 --> 00:09:37,160 Speaker 1: show and you can learn all about it over at 157 00:09:37,240 --> 00:09:40,760 Speaker 1: the world of Lore dot com. And until next time, 158 00:09:41,360 --> 00:09:42,200 Speaker 1: stay curious.