No one can explain today how such enormous blocks of stone could be moved
by Steve Shannon
Once a person discovers the facts surrounding this man, they are left scratching their head in wonderment as to why his achievements are so blatantly forgotten. Once revealed, the facts of this story leave no doubt that this man did in fact discover one of the greatest secrets of the ancient world. Unlike other so-called “experts” who only propose “theories”, this man left cold, hard proof that he knew what he was talking about. Anyone reading this can get in their car and drive to the exact spot where this story took place. They can put their hands on the very work this man did.
This man’s name is Edward Leedskalnin. His achievement is the beautiful Coral Castle at Homestead, Florida; which is conveniently located 25 miles south of Miami on Highway 1 for all to see.
How a man who stood just over 5 foot tall and weighed a mere 100 pounds built such an amazing structure still remains a huge mystery. No one can explain how for 28 years, Ed single-handedly moved blocks of coral stone weighing upwards of 30 tons using only primitive hand tools. Such stones cannot be moved even today without the use of huge cranes, which themselves take days to assemble. Ed had no such equipment… only determination.
Edward Leedskalnin was born in Riga, Latvia August 10, 1887 and at the age of 26 immigrated to the U.S. This, after being jilted on the night before his wedding by a young sixteen year old lady named Agnes Scuffs, whom Ed later affectionately referred to as his “Sweet Sixteen”. He immediately left Latvia broken-hearted. His travels took him through Europe, across to Canada where he worked as a lumber jack, south through Texas where he worked on at least one cattle drive, and eventually east to the Florida everglades. Ed had mild tuberculosis, so he believed it best for his health, that he move to Florida.
By the time Ed reached Florida though, he had become extremely ill. A kind local real estate agent found Ed lying on the side of the road and brought him home, where he and his wife nursed Ed back to health. Well, they did the best that they could…
A local doctor discovered that Ed was suffering from terminal tuberculosis, which in those days meant the death sentence. Ed was only given a few months to live. Ed could still get around fine, but occasionally he would have gut-wrenching coughing spells, which sometimes resulted in Ed passing out.
When Ed was given the news that he only had a few months to live he just cracked a smile and said, “We’ll see”.
Despite his condition, Ed decided to find a piece of land where he could build a huge monument to his “Sweet Sixteen” in hopes that she would come to the United States and marry him once she found out about it.
In 1918 Ed found the perfect piece of land at a place called Florida City and bought it for $12. It was useless to most anyone else, simply because it was solid rock with only a few inches of topsoil. The coral rock was up to 4000 feet think in this area. Working in secrecy and mostly at night by the light of a lantern, he began to cut and move monolithic blocks of coral stone.
During this period, it was reported that people sometimes saw Ed laying in a huge, circular, perfectly balanced rock that he could rotate with just a kick of his foot. The idea, as Ed later explained, was to stay in alignment with the sun and keep the sunlight on his chest. Some also reported seeing a wooden pyramid shaped structure on the circular stone. Ed would lay underneath the pyramid structure in the sunlight on a daily basis from 1:00pm – 3:00pm.
Ed once stated that ‘cancer could not live within a magnetic field’. Whatever Ed did, it worked. Weeks later on the next visit to the doctor, Ed was told that he had the lungs and the blood of a child. The doctor was dumbfounded.
This doctor’s report is on display at Coral Castle, today.
Ed opened up “Rock Gate Park”, as it was then called, to visitors in 1923 and charged 10 cents per visitor. Ed called his creation Rock Gate Park because of the 9-ton rock gate that he had built to such precise specifications that a small girl could push it open with the tip of her finger. The stone is perfectly balanced with only a quarter-inch clearance at either side.
Other great monoliths that Ed created included a 28-ton obelisk, a 20-ton Polaris Telescope that constantly follows the Polaris star in the sky, a 5000 lb heart-shaped table, a 23-ton crescent moon, a one-of-a-kind sun-dial that keeps time within 2 minutes, the only known moon dial in the world, a 30-ton block of coral Ed called “his greatest achievement”, and much more. The 5000 lb heart-shaped table was dubbed “the world’s largest valentine”, by Ripley’s Believe It Or Not. The stones in the walls of Coral Castle average 6 tons each; more than those in the Great Pyramid, which average around 3 tons.
Quite an achievement, indeed!
Much more will be revealed about this mysterious man and his incredible creation at Homestead, Florida – next time…
About the author:
Steve Shannon is webmaster of PrivilegedInfo.com. Visit http://www.privilegedinfo.com and see what cool stuff you’ve been missing! You may reprint this article in its entirety as long as this resource box remains intact and the links are live.
