Coral Castle Fact and Folklore

SI Jan Feb 2010 pgs 11/12/09 10:44 AM Page 49 Coral Castle Fact and Folklore How a diminutive, frail, uneducated, unskilled man built Coral Castle unaided and without modern machinery has supposedly “baffled scientists, engineers, and scholars.” This article investigates these claims and other persistent myths and mysteries surrounding Coral Castle. KAREN STOLLZNOW ourists flock to Florida to visit the state’s beaches, national parks, and theme parks. They don’t usually Ttravel to the tiny town of Homestead, between Miami and the Florida Keys, to see Coral Castle. Even some of the locals hadn’t heard of the place. Yet this unassuming rock garden has been called the Eighth Wonder of the World, compared by some to the Great Pyramid of Giza and Stonehenge, and is indeed known as “America’s Stonehenge.” At the very least it is listed on the National Register of Historicˆ Places. Edward Leedskalnin (Eduards Liedskalnin, s), a five-foot- tall, one-hundred-pound immigrant from Latvia, relocated to Florida where he spent almost thirty years single-hand- edly excavating, carving, and constructing 1,100 tons of SKEPTICAL INQUIRER January / February 2010 49 SI Jan Feb 2010 pgs 11/12/09 10:44 AM Page 50 coral rock with his bare hands to build “Rock Gate Park,” a rocker, and a rocking cradle. A throne room displays five rock- sculpture garden for his unrequited love. ing chairs. Indoor features are combined with outdoor ele- The story of Coral Castle is ingrained in folklore, but no ments; a moon fountain is flanked by eighteen-ton first and two stories are the same. At the age of twenty-six, Leedskalnin last quarters of the moon and a full moon fish pond weighing was engaged to sixteen-year-old Agnes Scuffs. The night before twenty-three tons. There is a children’s playground based on the wedding, Scuffs broke off the engagement and broke the fairy tale “Goldilocks and the Three Bears.” Bizarre stone Leedskalnin’s heart. Lovesick Leedskalnin left Latvia seeking stocks stand in the repentance corner for punishing a fictional opportunity overseas. Employed in various manual labor jobs, he wife or children for any misbehavior. There is a forty-foot-tall traveled through Europe to Canada and across the United States. obelisk and a sun dial that records the hours between 9 AM and During these travels he contracted tuberculosis. Hearing that 4 PM. A thirty-ton lens-less Polaris telescope is fixed on the Florida had a climate beneficial to this condition, Leedskalnin North Star, and various cosmological sculptures include eigh- relocated there around 1918. He spent a few years recuperat- teen-ton carvings of Mars and Saturn and a twenty-three-ton ing from his illness before purchasing ten acres of property in crescent moon. Florida City around 1920. This land was unfavorable to culti- The sculptures are mostly ornamental, although a well, vation yet favorable to quarrying oolite, the native limestone outdoor bathtub, and barbecue cooker are functional. Palm bedrock (technically, the “castle” isn’t coral). The eccentric trees and plants grow in the gravel floor, but there is no roof. Leedskalnin proceeded to build “Ed’s Place,” Rock Gate Park, It’s an inside-out “house,” although it is uninhabitable, with over the next three decades. separate living quarters and a two-story tower built of blocks weighing four to nine tons each. The room downstairs func- tioned as Leedskalnin’s tool shed and workshop, and he lived upstairs in Spartan conditions. There are two unused rock en- trances (hence “Rock Gate Park”), a three-ton gate and nine-ton revolving boulder gate that could supposedly be “pushed open with the slightest touch of a pinkie finger!” before it was affected by erosion. The garden is surrounded by four walls measuring eight by three by four feet. The north wall is composed of three sections; the middle block is the heaviest in the © Karen Stollznow 2008 park, weighing thirty tons, and is Undoubtedly, the project had immense topped with four blocks creating a personal significance for Leedskalnin. “crown.” These measurements are When asked why he built the park, Leeds- supplied on site, but some are proba- kalnin would answer mysteriously, “For my bly exaggerated; e.g., Stansfield claims Sweet Sixteen.” It is widely believed that the “nine-ton gate” weighs 5.59 tons © Leedskalnin 2008 “Sweet Sixteen” was a reference to Agnes (Stansfield 2006). Scuffs. Some sources present her surname as the more Lettish- The sculptures have been compared to Michelangelo, sounding Skuvst (Stansfield 2006). Latvian account Koraļļu although they are rough-hewn and rudimentary in design. Pils asserts that this woman did indeed exist, although her They are more striking for their sheer size, and this aspect gen- name was Hermi–ne Lu–sis (Stavro 2005). Sweet Sixteen never erates the most debate about Coral Castle: How did Leed- saw Rock Gate Park. This sad and strange story was the inspi- skalnin move these massive stone blocks? ration for Billy Idol’s 1987 song “Sweet Sixteen” and for much Surprisingly, no one asks the prior question: How did paranormal and pseudoscientific conjecture. Leedskalnin quarry the blocks from the bedrock? He came The modern Coral Castle is a courtyard of prehistoric-look- from a family of stonemasons and was himself trained in this ing carvings covering a small section of three acres. Rooms with- trade, specializing in carving tombstones (Stavro 2005). Before out walls house sculptures of stone furniture, including a two-ton building Coral Castle, he worked in lumber camps and partic- heart-shaped table and a twenty-foot-long table carved in the ipated in cattle drives (Coral Castle 2008). Leedskalnin had form of Florida. A family bedroom contains four beds, a child’s been sick, but despite the popular belief that he was frail, he had strength and requisite knowledge and skills. Karen Stollznow is a linguist, researcher, and writer with a PhD Oolite limestone is a porous, soft sedimentary rock that can in linguistics. She is the author of the CSI Web column “The be mined with hand tools, known for its relative ease of extrac- Naked Skeptic.” tion and suitability for carving (Hoffmeister 1974). Leed- 50 VOLUME 34, ISSUE 1 SKEPTICAL INQUIRER SI Jan Feb 2010 pgs 11/12/09 10:45 AM Page 51 skalnin split the rock using “truck springs sharpened into made it difficult for anyone to see him working. His reluctance wedges to break blocks of coral loose from their bed” (Coral to work during the day can be attributed to Florida’s relentless Castle 2008). His background in stonemasonry provided him heat and sun. A tour guide insisted that Leedskalnin spent his with sculpting experience, which counters claims that he used days reading in a “health chair” that lies over a “sweet spot” on paranormal powers rather than tools: “In looking at these a ley line grid that “spontaneously cured him of tuberculosis” chairs and other carvings, notice the absence of chisel marks. and also “repels arthritis.” Sadly, the chair didn’t cure him of Notice that the coral does not appear to have been carved” his chronic tuberculosis or his terminal stomach cancer. (Coral Castle 2008). However, chisels and hand saws are on Leedskalnin is portrayed as a paranoid loner. But he had no display in Leedskalnin’s tool shed, family nearby, only a nephew in Mich- and tool marks can be observed on igan who eventually inherited the pre- the chairs and other sculptures in the park despite natural erosion. Some speculate that Leedskalnin used magic, not mortar, in his join- ery. Conversely, we find he “used cement in joining the blocks because of the hurricanes we have [in Florida]” (Coral Castle 2008). When asked how he moved the blocks, Leedskalnin would answer cryptically, “I have discovered the secrets of the pyramids.” Numerous unorthodox theories attempt to explain this apparent mystery. Echoing theories about Stonehenge, some believe Leedskalnin enlisted the assistance of extraterrestrial beings. Stories variously credit him with superhuman strength, super- natural powers, or secret knowledge. Contradicting claims he was © Leedskalnin 2008 weak, Leedskalnin was allegedly observed “lifting the blocks with his bare hands” (Nimoy 1981). Others believe he employed “Tibetan Monk techniques” of singing to the stones, using these sound waves to somehow lighten their weight in © Leedskalnin 2008 order to lift them (Joseph 1998). mises. Homestead was, and still is, a remote, low-density The most popular theory is that Leedskalnin levitated the township of open agricultural land. Leedskalnin was relatively blocks using telekinesis or magnetic currents. Some claim that isolated, and there were only a few distant neighbors who “ley lines” exist beneath Coral Castle, producing electrical could possibly have observed him at work. The park walls pro- forces that enabled him to levitate the blocks (Kohler 2009). tected his private residence and business. In fact, they weren’t Some believe Leedskalnin harnessed electromagnetism to erected until 1940, after his move, when most of the sculp- reduce the gravitational pull of the earth or that the park is tures were already built (Coral Castle 2008). In 1934 a group built on a position of harmonic resonance, on a grid that cre- of young men intruded and attacked Leedskalnin; this inci- ates anti-gravity allowing the blocks to be levitated (Nimoy dent likely prompted his eventual move, and the walls and 1981). Adapting his theory of Hyperdimensional Physics, some lookout points were later added as security measures. Richard Hoagland (of “Face on Mars” infamy) dowsed the These factors are not to be construed as secrecy, as Rock premises and concludes that Leedskalnin tapped energy from Gate Park was open to the public.

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