WEBVTT - CLASSIC: Fort Blunder: The US Fort Mistakenly Built in Canada 0:00:02.400 --> 0:00:04.440 I put it. I've been putting these in. If we 0:00:04.559 --> 0:00:07.880 just go to twenty twenty six, we'll do Fort Blunder, 0:00:08.680 --> 0:00:19.040 and then the political body doubles. Yeah there, just go 0:00:19.200 --> 0:00:23.520 to twenty tweets. Yeah, yeah, it's about Yeah, I could 0:00:23.600 --> 0:00:31.319 do all right, Fellow Ridiculous Historians, we are back with 0:00:31.440 --> 0:00:36.960 this week's classic episode, Everybody fondly remembers the War of 0:00:37.000 --> 0:00:37.680 eighteen twelve. 0:00:38.200 --> 0:00:41.280 Oh yeah, what a time, What a time to be alive? 0:00:41.880 --> 0:00:47.199 What a time. It's no eighteen eleven, but we'll keep it. 0:00:48.080 --> 0:00:51.320 This is this is a crazy one better, it's one better. 0:00:51.479 --> 0:00:54.360 It's what what could be better than? Eighteen eleven? Eighteen 0:00:54.440 --> 0:00:59.240 twelve war side. This is one of our favorite kind 0:00:59.280 --> 0:01:06.080 of genre of ridiculous history, because it's about when very 0:01:06.160 --> 0:01:12.200 powerful militaries do stuff in an incredibly dumb way. 0:01:12.800 --> 0:01:15.000 Oh boy, did they ever? I think the title says 0:01:15.000 --> 0:01:15.240 it all. 0:01:15.400 --> 0:01:19.440 Fort Blunder, the US fort mistakenly built in Canada. 0:01:19.840 --> 0:01:20.760 Let's roll it to me. 0:01:24.040 --> 0:01:51.840 Ridiculous History is a production of iHeartRadio. Welcome back to 0:01:51.880 --> 0:01:59.240 the show, Ridiculous Historians. This episode is about a hilarious mistake, 0:01:59.480 --> 0:02:03.960 a goof a doof a whoopsie, a blunder. My name 0:02:04.000 --> 0:02:07.480 is Ben A blender, A blending of blunders, perhaps. 0:02:08.040 --> 0:02:11.440 Yeah, a blending of blunders that on first blush seems 0:02:11.919 --> 0:02:15.240 a little unremarkable. But no, sir, No, sir, was not 0:02:15.360 --> 0:02:18.240 unremarkable because it has to do with borders. We've been 0:02:18.240 --> 0:02:20.160 doing a little border theme lately. But we had that 0:02:20.240 --> 0:02:23.919 war between what was it, Ohio and a mission into war. 0:02:24.000 --> 0:02:26.959 They had that no man's land where no man knew 0:02:27.040 --> 0:02:30.280 who it belonged to because of a poor mapping and 0:02:30.360 --> 0:02:35.960 just poor what speculation right or cartography? Cartography, that's the word, Ben. 0:02:36.400 --> 0:02:41.000 Such is the case in today's episode where the US 0:02:41.080 --> 0:02:43.200 accidentally built a military based on the wrong side of 0:02:43.240 --> 0:02:47.160 the US Canada border spoiler alert. 0:02:47.960 --> 0:02:49.320 But there's more to it than that, isn't there. 0:02:49.400 --> 0:02:53.000 So in eighteen sixteen it became a big deal that 0:02:53.040 --> 0:02:56.200 we protect our border with Canada. 0:02:56.360 --> 0:02:58.840 Why, you might ask, why is that? No, I'll tell 0:02:58.880 --> 0:03:00.440 you why, Ben, You think we think. 0:03:00.360 --> 0:03:04.280 Of Canada as our mellow you know, stoner neighbors to 0:03:04.360 --> 0:03:04.799 the north. 0:03:05.160 --> 0:03:08.680 Yeah, it's like it's one time I don't completely agree 0:03:08.720 --> 0:03:11.680 with this. One time a friend of mine referred to 0:03:11.760 --> 0:03:14.480 Canada as diet America, and I said, why is that 0:03:14.520 --> 0:03:16.720 And they said, well, it's a little better for you, 0:03:16.760 --> 0:03:19.280 and I was like, you know nothing about the diet 0:03:19.320 --> 0:03:22.160 soda game man watching out of this analogy, Oh, we 0:03:22.200 --> 0:03:24.960 should give a shout out to our guest super producer 0:03:25.080 --> 0:03:26.839 Paul Mission Controlled decand. 0:03:30.160 --> 0:03:31.399 He's like our Canada. 0:03:31.480 --> 0:03:35.240 He actually he and he is our Canada. He and 0:03:35.440 --> 0:03:39.520 super producer Casey Begram are very good friends outside of 0:03:39.520 --> 0:03:41.880 the show. The American version of Casey. 0:03:42.800 --> 0:03:46.960 It's funny Casey. He has his second life in Paris, 0:03:47.000 --> 0:03:50.240 France as LaBouche, but occasionally he carries on a third 0:03:50.320 --> 0:03:54.240 life as a logger in French Canada also goes by 0:03:54.240 --> 0:03:54.680 the moniker. 0:03:54.760 --> 0:03:57.000 LaBouche wears a slightly different outfit. 0:03:56.760 --> 0:04:02.320 Much more of a plaid flannel lumberjack flannel situation. And yeah, 0:04:02.360 --> 0:04:05.400 and he has an unstoppable force in the logging industry 0:04:05.720 --> 0:04:06.160 and it. 0:04:06.080 --> 0:04:11.600 All ties into his Parisian criminal empire, which we should 0:04:11.680 --> 0:04:14.480 save for its own episode. I think we should because 0:04:14.600 --> 0:04:16.120 boundaries are important. 0:04:16.279 --> 0:04:16.880 Yeah, exactly. 0:04:16.880 --> 0:04:19.760 Speaking of boundaries, so we're talking about Canada. We think 0:04:19.800 --> 0:04:21.880 of them as as our friends, which they are, but 0:04:21.920 --> 0:04:24.880 at the time, I mean, there's still what what would 0:04:24.880 --> 0:04:27.880 you call them then? A territory of the United Kingdom, Like, 0:04:28.400 --> 0:04:30.159 how are they connected to the United Kingdom. 0:04:30.360 --> 0:04:35.719 Well, the thing is that the British use Canadian land 0:04:35.960 --> 0:04:40.680 as a taking off point for invasions. So during both 0:04:40.680 --> 0:04:43.479 the American Revolutionary War and again in the War of 0:04:43.520 --> 0:04:49.320 eighteen twelve, British forces launch invasions down Lake Champlain with 0:04:49.400 --> 0:04:53.520 hopes of cutting America in two. And so the Madison 0:04:53.560 --> 0:04:57.560 administration says, this is a weak point, this cannot be happening. 0:04:58.360 --> 0:05:02.440 We have to do something. Rum pump, something must be done. 0:05:02.520 --> 0:05:06.479 We need a sick fortress, we need a dope a fortress. 0:05:06.800 --> 0:05:12.200 That's the best solution. So they construct a modern, heavy 0:05:12.279 --> 0:05:15.400 fort modern for that day on the New York shore 0:05:15.560 --> 0:05:19.080 of Lake Champlain. And they named the place Fort Montgomery, 0:05:19.160 --> 0:05:22.400 in honor of General Richard Montgomery, a hero of the 0:05:22.440 --> 0:05:23.440 Revolutionary War. 0:05:23.600 --> 0:05:26.719 Yeah, and this dude named Joseph Totten, who later became 0:05:26.760 --> 0:05:30.279 the Chief engineer of the US Army, of the whole army, 0:05:30.560 --> 0:05:34.039 This guy meant business. He oversaw the construction and it 0:05:34.120 --> 0:05:36.560 was a thirty foot tall structure. It was made out 0:05:36.560 --> 0:05:42.159 of the same Vermont limestone that later was used to 0:05:42.160 --> 0:05:45.720 construct Radio City Music Hall and the Brooklyn Bridge, and 0:05:45.800 --> 0:05:48.120 they built this thing up. It was going to have 0:05:48.160 --> 0:05:51.360 one hundred and twenty five cannon ports and any ship 0:05:51.600 --> 0:05:55.200 that was passing by on the British side was going 0:05:55.279 --> 0:05:56.200 to be given What. 0:05:56.320 --> 0:06:01.400 For sounds great on paper, here's the problem. This was 0:06:01.720 --> 0:06:04.680 an embarrassment on multiple levels. And we'll get to the 0:06:04.680 --> 0:06:07.560 big one in a sec. But just the building itself, 0:06:07.880 --> 0:06:11.120 it was, as you said, eight sided, thirty feet high, 0:06:11.360 --> 0:06:14.520 but it was built on a weak, unstable foundation that 0:06:14.600 --> 0:06:18.400 was mainly composed of debris bought from ruins of the 0:06:18.480 --> 0:06:23.280 Plattsburgh batteries and outworks. So literally, the foundations of this 0:06:23.360 --> 0:06:28.559 thing are weak. It can't hold, and it doesn't matter 0:06:28.680 --> 0:06:34.000 if it does hold, because they figured out what was 0:06:34.040 --> 0:06:35.799 wrong pretty quickly. 0:06:35.880 --> 0:06:39.719 Yeah, at the most embarrassing time possible, because Madison actually 0:06:39.839 --> 0:06:42.560 showed up to get a glance, to get a gander 0:06:42.560 --> 0:06:45.120 at the progress that you know that he he had 0:06:45.120 --> 0:06:49.880 proposed this fort, and that is when they realized that 0:06:49.920 --> 0:06:53.839 they had actually built the thing on the Canada side. 0:06:54.160 --> 0:06:59.000 Let's get a tire screech, perfect. Yeah, you see, under 0:06:59.000 --> 0:07:02.200 the seventeen eighty th Retreaty of Paris, the border between 0:07:02.200 --> 0:07:05.560 New York and Quebec was the forty fifth parallel, but 0:07:05.640 --> 0:07:09.200 the previous understanding of the location of that line of 0:07:09.320 --> 0:07:13.640 latitude was incorrect, a fact that surveyors did not discover 0:07:13.880 --> 0:07:18.640 until eighteen eighteen. At this point, the US has already 0:07:18.680 --> 0:07:25.440 spent two hundred and seventy five thousand dollars on construction. 0:07:24.960 --> 0:07:28.520 That has not jump change of the time had a serious, 0:07:28.840 --> 0:07:30.760 big imaginary military money. 0:07:30.840 --> 0:07:33.640 Yeah, let's let's inflation calculate this real quick. 0:07:38.200 --> 0:07:38.800 Here we go. 0:07:39.360 --> 0:07:43.480 Two hundred and seventy five thousand dollars in eighteen eighteen 0:07:43.760 --> 0:07:50.480 is now worth approximately five million, five hundred thirty three thousand, 0:07:50.560 --> 0:07:53.560 five hundred nineteen dollars and sixty nine cents. 0:07:53.720 --> 0:07:57.240 Okay, so maybe not like Avatar money, but you know, 0:07:57.480 --> 0:07:59.080 five million dollars five million bucks. 0:07:59.120 --> 0:07:59.960 First Hypto instruction. 0:08:00.000 --> 0:08:00.840 Sure, that's a lot. 0:08:00.920 --> 0:08:02.680 That's a lot for a stone structure. It's true. 0:08:02.760 --> 0:08:04.760 There wasn't even any like moving parts. There wasn't even 0:08:04.760 --> 0:08:09.400 any technology. Itolved probably windows, windows, sure, door hinges, that's 0:08:10.520 --> 0:08:14.320 the original moving parts. Yes, so this is this is 0:08:14.360 --> 0:08:19.040 a tremendous embarrassment. Right, What do they do when they 0:08:19.080 --> 0:08:22.600 figure out that this fort designed to protect the US 0:08:22.640 --> 0:08:26.720 from Canada, is you know in Canada. Yeah, And it 0:08:26.760 --> 0:08:29.520 wasn't until eighteen forty two that this discrepancy about the 0:08:29.560 --> 0:08:32.800 borderline was resolved. There's something called the Webster Ashburton Treaty 0:08:33.040 --> 0:08:36.960 that provided the understanding that the original border was going 0:08:37.000 --> 0:08:41.120 to hold the old line that was surveyed by Valentine 0:08:41.160 --> 0:08:44.160 and Collins in seventeen seventy four that was known as 0:08:44.200 --> 0:08:48.199 the forty fifth degree of north latitude and then became 0:08:48.520 --> 0:08:52.480 known as the actual divide between New York and Vermont 0:08:52.760 --> 0:08:56.400 on one side and the British province of Canada on 0:08:56.440 --> 0:08:58.960 the other. And from this is a quote actually from 0:08:59.000 --> 0:09:01.960 a neat Orama article, and from said point of intersection 0:09:02.080 --> 0:09:06.320 west along the said divide lies as heretofore known and 0:09:06.400 --> 0:09:10.200 understood to the Iroquois as or Sir Lawrence River. 0:09:10.720 --> 0:09:12.800 You know, this is back in the day when if 0:09:12.880 --> 0:09:16.040 you wanted stuff to sound totally profound, you added, said 0:09:16.280 --> 0:09:18.880 it just peppered and said at some point, you know 0:09:19.920 --> 0:09:24.880 our said guest producer Paul Decant is agreeing here. So 0:09:25.679 --> 0:09:29.120 it's interesting because they tried to resolve the issue. But 0:09:29.360 --> 0:09:31.679 while they were resolving this, we have to remember this 0:09:31.720 --> 0:09:35.920 fort had been abandoned decades. Locals are looting the construction 0:09:36.120 --> 0:09:39.920 site because the work stopped, you know, and Fort Montgomery, 0:09:40.000 --> 0:09:43.320 by the time eighteen forty two comes around, is widely 0:09:43.400 --> 0:09:48.640 known as Fort Blunder. But to your point, now, after 0:09:48.840 --> 0:09:53.520 this Webster Ashburton Treaty, that's the one, right, they resumed 0:09:53.520 --> 0:10:01.679 construction in eighteen forty four, and Fort Blunder actually get 0:10:01.760 --> 0:10:04.640 some get some play. It's a it's a working base. 0:10:04.840 --> 0:10:07.560 You just actually me then, No, I'm just saying actually, 0:10:07.640 --> 0:10:08.439 like I'm surprised. 0:10:09.120 --> 0:10:09.719 Okay, that's fair. 0:10:09.880 --> 0:10:13.280 Right, Look, it's a living language. I'll speak how I want. 0:10:13.360 --> 0:10:15.160 I see you and as well you should, then I 0:10:15.160 --> 0:10:16.800 will ask questions as I want. 0:10:16.920 --> 0:10:18.839 Do you Are you one of those people who's intimidated 0:10:18.840 --> 0:10:20.360 by the use of the word actually or is it? 0:10:20.400 --> 0:10:22.520 For me? It's when it's at the beginning of a sentence, 0:10:23.160 --> 0:10:26.080 it always means that, so why are you doing this? 0:10:26.200 --> 0:10:27.120 Yeah, it's sort of to me. 0:10:27.160 --> 0:10:29.520 It's a license to tune out whatever the person's about 0:10:29.520 --> 0:10:31.640 to say after that, So I actually appreciate it. It's 0:10:31.679 --> 0:10:33.800 kind of a context clue where you know whatever's going 0:10:33.840 --> 0:10:36.240 to follow is going to be pretentious and unhelpful. 0:10:35.760 --> 0:10:38.960 Like that old Dimitri Martin observation when he says I 0:10:39.000 --> 0:10:43.360 love bumper stickers. It's such a convenient way of saying, 0:10:43.720 --> 0:10:49.360 let's never talk agreed. Oh I like bumper stickers, They're 0:10:49.400 --> 0:10:49.880 just not for me. 0:10:49.960 --> 0:10:50.720 They're not for me either. 0:10:50.800 --> 0:10:56.640 No, No, I have a virgin car. 0:10:58.720 --> 0:11:02.400 This is strange. You can see photos of Fort Blunder 0:11:02.920 --> 0:11:05.880 or Fort Montgomery excuses. If you want to check out 0:11:05.880 --> 0:11:10.160 some close up pictures, visit historic Lakes dot org, where 0:11:10.320 --> 0:11:13.920 you can see you can see the lay of the land, 0:11:14.000 --> 0:11:17.400 you can see the old map where they miscalculated everything. 0:11:17.679 --> 0:11:23.560 You can even see a sketch about Blunder, which depicts 0:11:23.640 --> 0:11:25.400 the structure we talked about earlier. 0:11:25.480 --> 0:11:27.000 I don't know if we talked about some of the 0:11:27.000 --> 0:11:30.520 features of the fort outside of the gun turrets or whatever, 0:11:30.720 --> 0:11:33.920 the little windows, but it did at one point stand 0:11:33.960 --> 0:11:37.040 forty eight feet high. The western facing wall was known 0:11:37.080 --> 0:11:40.640 as the Gorge, and that was adjacent to a giant 0:11:40.720 --> 0:11:43.880 called that's something called a cover face or an earthen bank, 0:11:44.160 --> 0:11:47.560 and that was created as a defensive aid for land attacks, 0:11:47.679 --> 0:11:50.000 and then it had a moat. I didn't realize this 0:11:50.000 --> 0:11:51.720 is I mean, it's very much like old school kind 0:11:51.760 --> 0:11:54.320 of castle type features. Right, It had a moat which 0:11:54.360 --> 0:11:57.200 was referred to as a wet ditch, which was filled 0:11:57.200 --> 0:12:01.240 with lake water. These days it is not is not 0:12:01.280 --> 0:12:04.280 looking so hot. It is quite worse for wear because 0:12:04.320 --> 0:12:07.160 a lot of local you know, kids and ruffians and 0:12:07.200 --> 0:12:10.720 biker gangs, you know, have just tagged it all up. 0:12:11.240 --> 0:12:14.440 It is actually for sale if you're in the market. 0:12:15.160 --> 0:12:18.000 In the nineteen twenties, the US sold Fort Montgomery at 0:12:18.000 --> 0:12:20.840 an auction, and then in nineteen eighty three a Victor 0:12:20.960 --> 0:12:24.640 Pod who is a shipping magnate from Montreal. That's when 0:12:24.640 --> 0:12:28.079 he bought it, and he offered part of the property 0:12:28.080 --> 0:12:31.120 to New York State as a historic preservation site, but 0:12:31.280 --> 0:12:34.480 New York did not want it. Then Pod died in 0:12:34.559 --> 0:12:38.560 ninety nine and his sons inherited the fort and tried 0:12:38.559 --> 0:12:41.800 to sell it on eBay and actually got one valid 0:12:41.800 --> 0:12:45.400 bid for five million bucks, but it fell through. Still 0:12:45.440 --> 0:12:48.240 for sale, I believe the current asking price is around 0:12:48.280 --> 0:12:49.920 a million bucks. 0:12:50.320 --> 0:12:53.679 That's a lot of depreciation, really is from five point 0:12:53.720 --> 0:12:55.680 five to three whatever, just sixty nine. 0:12:56.160 --> 0:12:59.120 That's worse than like dealership depreciation, like when you drive 0:12:59.160 --> 0:13:01.800 the car off the line, you know, one million, one million, 0:13:02.080 --> 0:13:04.199 not even a million, nine hundred and ninety five thousand. 0:13:04.320 --> 0:13:07.920 Ah yeah, So from five point five million dollars and 0:13:07.960 --> 0:13:12.000 sixty nine cents to just under a million dollars, that's 0:13:12.040 --> 0:13:17.800 boat level depreciation, and you know, hopefully a lesson learned. 0:13:18.960 --> 0:13:23.880 There's a great Atlas Obscure article about the current situation 0:13:24.120 --> 0:13:29.120 Fort Montgomery is encountering, which just says for sale an abandoned, 0:13:29.160 --> 0:13:32.839 decaying fort on a private island. It says decaying, Uh huh, 0:13:32.840 --> 0:13:35.760 and it is. You can see some great pictures. It's overgrown, 0:13:36.200 --> 0:13:40.120 there's graffiti all over it. They're probably you know, syringes. 0:13:40.240 --> 0:13:40.760 You don't think they. 0:13:40.679 --> 0:13:42.240 Would have gone in there and gussied it up a 0:13:42.240 --> 0:13:44.280 little bit like they did for real estate photos. You know, 0:13:44.320 --> 0:13:46.600 they're really not trying to upsell this thing, are they been? 0:13:46.920 --> 0:13:47.319 No? 0:13:47.320 --> 0:13:52.280 No, they're not really, because the problem here is one 0:13:52.440 --> 0:13:58.400 of infrastructure, right, and it's still on the National Register 0:13:58.559 --> 0:14:02.880 of Historic Place is But okay, everybody knows that it 0:14:02.920 --> 0:14:06.440 needs to be saved, but nobody's willing to pony up 0:14:06.520 --> 0:14:10.600 the scratch and cheddar, the itchy cheddar to support it. 0:14:10.640 --> 0:14:13.920 For instance, the Preservation League of New York State included 0:14:13.960 --> 0:14:17.760 this Fort on its Seven to Save List in two 0:14:17.800 --> 0:14:20.840 thousand and nine, a roundup of at risk historic sites 0:14:20.880 --> 0:14:25.600 that need help, and according to Katie Peace, the communications 0:14:25.640 --> 0:14:28.960 director of the Preservation League of New York State, there 0:14:29.000 --> 0:14:33.920 are no current plans to rehabilitate the site. It joins 0:14:33.960 --> 0:14:38.080 the ranks of other historical places and objects of significance, 0:14:38.200 --> 0:14:41.640 like the gunboat Spitfire, which was part of the American 0:14:41.680 --> 0:14:46.760 fleet that contributed to the Saratoga Victory in seventeen seventy seven, 0:14:47.840 --> 0:14:51.520 or the John van Houston House, which looks the worse 0:14:51.520 --> 0:14:54.840 for wear, but is an early eighteenth century example of 0:14:54.920 --> 0:14:59.480 Dutch settlement along the Hudson, the plum Bronson House, which 0:14:59.520 --> 0:15:05.480 is also just rapidly deteriorating, and the Magdalen Island, which 0:15:05.480 --> 0:15:08.440 has an ancient past as a stopping place for Native 0:15:08.440 --> 0:15:13.160 American populations or First Nations and Europeans who came later, 0:15:13.600 --> 0:15:17.960 the historic South Street Seaport, the Burden Iron Works Museum. 0:15:18.320 --> 0:15:20.360 Those are the seven, but there are many, many more, 0:15:20.400 --> 0:15:24.800 And when you look around, whether it's in the US 0:15:24.920 --> 0:15:28.160 or in other countries, I'm sure there's no shortage of 0:15:28.480 --> 0:15:31.640 decaying pieces of history that should be preserved. Like have 0:15:31.720 --> 0:15:33.160 you ever driven through Tennessee. 0:15:33.480 --> 0:15:36.160 Yeah, a little bit, but not a ton. Give me 0:15:36.160 --> 0:15:36.800 the scoop. 0:15:37.000 --> 0:15:41.640 Tennessee is there must be some government program. I can 0:15:41.680 --> 0:15:44.240 say this because I have family there. There must be 0:15:44.280 --> 0:15:48.080 some government program to make sure that everybody has at 0:15:48.120 --> 0:15:51.880 least one to two decaying barns in their fields. And 0:15:51.960 --> 0:15:53.920 you can even see them when you just drive on 0:15:53.960 --> 0:15:56.480 the interstate. But I'm always baffled by that, you know 0:15:56.560 --> 0:15:58.880 what I mean, because these barns are in use, but 0:15:58.880 --> 0:16:02.160 they're ready for one match to make them. 0:16:02.960 --> 0:16:05.960 That's very similar to driving some of the rural roads 0:16:05.960 --> 0:16:09.520 in Georgia, like between Atlanta and Athens, for example, or 0:16:09.520 --> 0:16:13.400 Augusta and Athens. Lots of big open fields with just 0:16:13.480 --> 0:16:16.680 a single ramshackled barn in the middle, and it looks 0:16:16.680 --> 0:16:18.600 like it's leaning kind of at a canted angle, like 0:16:18.640 --> 0:16:21.760 it could fall down with just a light breath of wind. 0:16:22.280 --> 0:16:26.440 Wiregrass country, especially if you drive. This is an example 0:16:26.480 --> 0:16:28.680 for people who don't know how big this state is, 0:16:29.640 --> 0:16:34.840 especially driving from Atlanta to Savannah down on Georgia's small 0:16:35.120 --> 0:16:37.800 Atlantic coast. Have you made that drive? 0:16:38.240 --> 0:16:40.240 I have. It's been a minute, though it's a long one. 0:16:40.600 --> 0:16:42.840 It's a long one. And it's not a particularly exciting 0:16:42.880 --> 0:16:46.000 one for some people. But it's what how long is it? 0:16:46.000 --> 0:16:49.080 It's hours from here to Savannah to Atlanta. I believe 0:16:49.120 --> 0:16:50.160 it's about six hours. 0:16:50.200 --> 0:16:54.720 Six hours. Yeah, six long hours, full of full of history, 0:16:54.880 --> 0:16:58.760 and full of things that look the worse for where 0:17:05.440 --> 0:17:07.879 you know. It reminds me whenever I travel somewhere, whether 0:17:08.040 --> 0:17:13.159 for work or whether for personal reasons, I always try 0:17:13.200 --> 0:17:19.920 to find a local museum or an historic site. In Texas, recently, 0:17:20.280 --> 0:17:23.160 a super producer, Paul Michigan Control Decking and I visited 0:17:23.200 --> 0:17:26.560 the Alamo and hey, check this out, man, I got 0:17:26.600 --> 0:17:27.159 something for you. 0:17:28.359 --> 0:17:33.680 Ben is now rummaging through his bag of chicks. Okay, 0:17:33.840 --> 0:17:34.240 here you go. 0:17:34.320 --> 0:17:36.640 I couldn't bring you the actual Alamo, but I found 0:17:37.480 --> 0:17:39.000 I found a little funny. 0:17:39.160 --> 0:17:41.800 It's a pamphlet. It's a handbill for the Alamo. 0:17:42.080 --> 0:17:43.200 I would say it's a femera. 0:17:43.359 --> 0:17:44.879 Yeah, it absolutely is. 0:17:45.800 --> 0:17:48.040 Ben, give me the rundown of the Alamo as I 0:17:48.160 --> 0:17:48.720 perused this. 0:17:48.800 --> 0:17:52.920 Hand So so the thing that I think startled both 0:17:52.960 --> 0:17:55.760 Paul and myself was, and Paul, tell me if I 0:17:55.800 --> 0:17:57.760 get this wrong, is that when we went to the 0:17:57.800 --> 0:18:03.080 actual Alamo and went inside, it's free to attend. By 0:18:03.119 --> 0:18:08.720 the way, everything was under restoration or construction work, and 0:18:08.760 --> 0:18:11.520 there were there were entire pieces of of the building 0:18:11.880 --> 0:18:15.280 that needed to be saved, right, Uh, that were off limits, 0:18:15.920 --> 0:18:19.240 and we we didn't get to do a lot of 0:18:19.280 --> 0:18:23.200 the fun stuff. There's a re enactor who will builk 0:18:23.240 --> 0:18:26.320 you in a card game. We missed that. It was 0:18:26.359 --> 0:18:28.719 early in the morning. Uh. But I'm a huge I'm 0:18:28.760 --> 0:18:30.560 a huge fan of that stuff, and I and I 0:18:30.600 --> 0:18:33.240 hope that I hope that we can as a species 0:18:33.280 --> 0:18:36.640 do our best to preserve the physical traces of those 0:18:36.640 --> 0:18:40.440 who came before us, whether that is a military fort, 0:18:41.000 --> 0:18:44.399 a vessel of note, I don't know. 0:18:44.520 --> 0:18:46.760 I see there's a pretty big footprint for the gift 0:18:46.800 --> 0:18:49.639 shop here, Ben. Was it spectacular? Was it an above average 0:18:49.680 --> 0:18:50.200 gift shop? 0:18:50.760 --> 0:18:51.040 It was? 0:18:51.359 --> 0:18:55.000 You know it was it was. Uh, it was interesting. 0:18:55.320 --> 0:18:59.760 It's interesting. I I did not personally pick up any 0:19:00.040 --> 0:19:00.320 if so. 0:19:00.359 --> 0:19:00.840 I was there. 0:19:00.920 --> 0:19:02.399 I was there for this story. But they have all 0:19:02.520 --> 0:19:10.360 you know, Texas branded stuff, uh, shotglasses, astros, replica guns. No, No, 0:19:10.480 --> 0:19:13.800 not this time. If if they were giving out actual 0:19:13.800 --> 0:19:16.560 pieces of the Alamo, might probably pick one up, but 0:19:16.600 --> 0:19:19.080 that would maybe defeat their purposes. But you know what, 0:19:19.480 --> 0:19:22.920 my friend, if ever I find myself on Fort Montgomery 0:19:23.000 --> 0:19:25.439 or Fort Blunder, I will pick up some pieces of 0:19:25.520 --> 0:19:26.600 history for us. 0:19:27.440 --> 0:19:29.600 Well, that's what we do here on Ridiculous History, man, 0:19:29.680 --> 0:19:33.000 We pick up the pieces of history. We put them 0:19:33.000 --> 0:19:35.760 back together like a veritable Rubik's cube. 0:19:36.440 --> 0:19:39.040 And this ends our episode. But not. 0:19:49.200 --> 0:19:52.000 It's time, gentle men. 0:19:52.560 --> 0:19:56.640 Jonathan Strickland ak the Quisterland quiz. 0:19:57.280 --> 0:19:58.000 It's going to be back. 0:19:58.040 --> 0:19:59.960 Guys. You've got a lot of nerve, my friend. 0:20:00.160 --> 0:20:01.280 I sure do. 0:20:02.119 --> 0:20:04.879 Just in general, it's just let's just let's. 0:20:04.640 --> 0:20:07.560 Just establish this just for a moment though, gentlemen. Uh huh, 0:20:07.720 --> 0:20:12.320 you're in my playground now, because you're not in your 0:20:12.320 --> 0:20:16.440 normal studio. You're in my studio. That's true, that's true. 0:20:16.520 --> 0:20:19.480 We are so we have a number of studios here 0:20:19.840 --> 0:20:24.159 at h Q, and Jonathan, this is one of the 0:20:24.240 --> 0:20:27.320 studios where you spend a lot of time recording. Uh 0:20:27.480 --> 0:20:28.520 let's see tech stuff. 0:20:28.800 --> 0:20:31.720 Sure, that's right. In your studio, I record the brink. 0:20:31.760 --> 0:20:34.919 But in my studio, I record tech stuff. Yes. 0:20:35.080 --> 0:20:37.600 And you know, I gotta say, I love what you're 0:20:37.640 --> 0:20:38.280 done with the place. 0:20:38.400 --> 0:20:41.160 Thanks, thanks, you're enjoying my butt groove. Right now, you're 0:20:41.200 --> 0:20:41.840 in my chair. 0:20:42.160 --> 0:20:43.040 I'm in your chair. 0:20:43.160 --> 0:20:44.199 That's the chair I sit in. 0:20:44.640 --> 0:20:47.400 Oh that's right. Yeah, I didn't think that. Are we cool? 0:20:47.440 --> 0:20:49.000 Do you want to switch chairs? I'm fine with that. 0:20:49.480 --> 0:20:51.399 If we switch chairs, then you can see whether or 0:20:51.480 --> 0:20:53.720 not the thing I'm about to tell you, if it's 0:20:53.720 --> 0:20:56.480 true or false. That's right, you just I'll just stay here. 0:20:56.640 --> 0:20:59.840 You're here for a reason. Yes, And the most cringe 0:21:00.119 --> 0:21:03.199 worthy segment in all the podcasting where I present a 0:21:03.200 --> 0:21:08.160 scenario to the two hosts of Ridiculous History and they 0:21:08.280 --> 0:21:10.840 determine whether or not I made it up or if 0:21:10.840 --> 0:21:14.520 it's a real one. And I understand we were talking 0:21:14.560 --> 0:21:21.560 about things about borders and mistakes about placing things places 0:21:21.640 --> 0:21:25.960 where you may not actually own them, so this is 0:21:26.080 --> 0:21:30.800 a somewhat related to that. But on the other side 0:21:31.640 --> 0:21:36.199 of the United States of America, the southern side. Have 0:21:36.280 --> 0:21:40.919 you ever wondered why Florida has a panhandle that seems 0:21:40.960 --> 0:21:44.040 to cut off the bottom of the state of Alabama all. 0:21:43.920 --> 0:21:45.680 The time, constantly keeps me up at night. 0:21:45.720 --> 0:21:48.280 Well, I have a scenario for you. You will have three 0:21:48.320 --> 0:21:50.680 minutes to decide whether or not and in fact, it 0:21:50.760 --> 0:21:53.080 is true or false, and of course, we always have 0:21:53.119 --> 0:21:57.960 an arbitrary rule, and I didn't come up with one beforehand. 0:21:58.040 --> 0:21:59.760 So if you're going to ask me a question before 0:21:59.760 --> 0:22:03.960 you get you have to yell spring break rules and 0:22:04.000 --> 0:22:06.800 then you can ask a question. Deal because it has 0:22:06.840 --> 0:22:09.480 to do with Florida and Alabama done all right, here we go. 0:22:11.160 --> 0:22:15.760 It's because of a really bad map and some quote 0:22:16.000 --> 0:22:22.840 unquote surveyors. After winning or purchasing territories from England, Spain, 0:22:23.000 --> 0:22:26.400 and France, the American government got down to the business 0:22:26.520 --> 0:22:30.800 of establishing states in the early eighteen hundreds. Originally, the 0:22:30.840 --> 0:22:34.320 Colony of Georgia stretched much further to the west, but 0:22:34.520 --> 0:22:38.679 it was decided that part of that land would be 0:22:38.720 --> 0:22:43.400 created into the state of Alabama. The Chattahoochee River would 0:22:43.440 --> 0:22:47.359 serve as a border much of the state line and 0:22:47.440 --> 0:22:50.359 would go all the way south, and a team of 0:22:50.400 --> 0:22:54.119 cartographers determined that the Gulf Coast of what would have 0:22:54.320 --> 0:23:01.680 been Alabama fell on the thirty one degree latitude. Here's 0:23:01.720 --> 0:23:05.679 the problem. The actual latitude line for the Gulf Coast 0:23:05.760 --> 0:23:11.399 is thirty degrees, which meant that the map actually ended 0:23:11.560 --> 0:23:14.399 much further north than the Gulf coast. But that's how 0:23:14.440 --> 0:23:17.200 it was written down, and because that's how it was 0:23:17.240 --> 0:23:20.800 written down in official documents, that's where the end of 0:23:20.880 --> 0:23:26.320 Alabama would be. And because of that error, Alabama does 0:23:26.400 --> 0:23:29.800 not have a Gulf coast that stretches across its entire width. Instead, 0:23:29.840 --> 0:23:36.440 it just has Mobile Bay. Begin Yeah, yes, mister Brown. 0:23:36.520 --> 0:23:38.280 Well, I've got to run to the timer. It's in 0:23:38.320 --> 0:23:42.480