The Coral Castle in Florida
In the early 1920’s Edward Leedskalnin was engaged to a 16 year old woman, Agnes Scuffs in Latvia. A day before their wedding Agnes got cold feet and canceled the wedding. Depressed and devastated, Edward sailed to America, believing that his true love would one day follow him. She never did. The hope that “his Sweet Sixteen” would change her mind drove Ed to build a remarkable castle for Agnes.
Ed settled in southern Florida and began his project, which took him over 28 years to complete—although he had been diagnosed with terminal Tuberculosis after he arrived in America. It is believed that since Ed worked extensively with magnets during his construction process, this is what cured his tuberculosis. (It hasn’t prompted modern medicine to use magnets as a cure now, however.)
The construction of this remarkable structure was done only at night, as Ed refused to allow anyone watch his progress. However, there were witnesses that reported seeing the giant stones used hovering over the ground as Ed moved them into place. A magnetic generator was found on the site after his death. The eccentric builder claimed he had solved the mystery of how the great pyramids were built, and perhaps he had. If he did make this discovery, he wasn’t willing to share it with the world, however. When asked directly how he moved the huge rocks he would answer only, “It's not difficult if you know how."
Ed passed away in 1951. Some of the
most remarkable aspects of the Coral Castle
are:
1) The main gate weighs 28 tons, but can be moved by a gentle
push. After Ed’s death it was discovered that the
stone Ed
set under this stone entrance was
quite small and was
made of a substance that has never been
identified.
2) The Castle was originally constructed in Florida
City,
but it was moved to Homestead,
Florida in 1936. Ed did
this on his own, stone by stone.
3) Ed weighed only 100 pounds and was just over 5 ft. tall.
4) All of the tools Ed used to build his castle we gotten from
a junk yard… no modern equipment was
ever used.
For more information regarding the Coral Castle please go to:
http://coralcastle.com/
