The Man Who Moved a Mountain - The Incredible True Story of
Florida's Coral Castle - Part 1 of 4
This is the incredible true story of the lifetime
accomplishments of a man who is scarcely mentioned in references
anywhere.
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