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CLASSIC: Weird People Who Built Weird Things · Ridiculous History

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  Speaker 1: Fellow ridiculous historians, we returned to you with a classic episode.
• 0:04
  Speaker 1: This is a bit of a listical for us. Let's
• 0:08
  Speaker 1: get into it. Get Do you ever have ideas for
• 0:10
  Speaker 1: a weird invention?
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  Speaker 2: You know, I think I maybe mentioned on the podcast before.
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  Speaker 2: They used to have a program that was sponsored by
• 0:15
  Speaker 2: the government to the US government called Invent America. And
• 0:19
  Speaker 2: when I was a kid, I participated in that a
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  Speaker 2: couple of times, and I invented something called the bright
• 0:25
  Speaker 2: Night toilet light, which was literally just a very simple
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  Speaker 2: circuit with a button wired onder the bottom of a
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  Speaker 2: traditional toilet seat that whatever you drop the toilet seed down,
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  Speaker 2: it would click on so that you wouldn't fall in
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  Speaker 2: the toilet. I believe I received an honorable mention, but no,
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  Speaker 2: that was the end of Those are the ends of
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  Speaker 2: my inventing days. Every time I call it something, I'm
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  Speaker 2: pretty sure it's already a thing.
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  Speaker 1: No worries, man, I accidentally reinvented air conditioning as a kid.
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  Speaker 2: I did once reinvent the wheel. I've done that many times. Actually, yeah, yeah.
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  Speaker 1: It's just it's a smart invention. We're talking about some
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  Speaker 1: odd story, some classic ridiculous history here in particular the
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  Speaker 1: story of Simeon Ellerton and Edward Lee Scalnan. Oh, can't
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  Speaker 1: wait for you to hear it. It's just talk about
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  Speaker 1: I'm still on the fence about this one, because there's
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  Speaker 1: a great argument for committing to the bit, but then
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  Speaker 1: there's also an argument of, hey, maybe don't make your
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  Speaker 1: life about one thing.
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  Speaker 2: Let's roll the audio.
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  Speaker 1: Ridiculous History is a production of iHeartRadio. Let's begin today's
• 2:01
  Speaker 1: episode with the busting of a popular myth. You have
• 2:07
  Speaker 1: probably often heard that the proper amount of walking average
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  Speaker 1: person should do a day works out to ten thousand steps.
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  Speaker 2: Oh that's true. That's what your little fitness tracker is
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  Speaker 2: supposed to say at the end of the day.
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  Speaker 1: Right right. And that's a lot of corporate initiatives saying,
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  Speaker 1: let's all walk ten thousand steps. You know, that's good
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  Speaker 1: for you. But there's not a lot of really compelling
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  Speaker 1: science that nails exactly ten thousand steps.
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  Speaker 2: Gotcha. It is a digestible number, though, is it not?
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  Speaker 1: And it is it is. It's a nice, easy, round
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  Speaker 1: number that sounds big and ambitious but achievable. And we're
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  Speaker 1: bringing that up just to set up a fantastic segue
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  Speaker 1: into a story about walking and into a story about ambition,
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  Speaker 1: several stories.
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  Speaker 2: In fact, who are you?
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  Speaker 1: Oh in this iteration they call them in this one?
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  Speaker 2: Okay, yeah, there are alternate versions. I mean, you know
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  Speaker 2: you contain multitudes.
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  Speaker 1: Hey, right, If I contradict myself very well, then I
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  Speaker 1: contradict myself. But enough about me, what about you?
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  Speaker 2: I don't want to talk about me, But who are you?
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  Speaker 2: I'm nol This is ridiculous history, and we have clearly
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  Speaker 2: run out of ideas, which is fine, which is fine,
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  Speaker 2: happens to the best of us. But we're gonna do
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  Speaker 2: our damnst with this one talking about a dude, an
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  Speaker 2: English guy who walked a lot and had ambitions, and
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  Speaker 2: then we're gonna follow that up with another story about
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  Speaker 2: another guy with ambitions, and then I think we'll wrap
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  Speaker 2: up with some little nuggets about other weird people that
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  Speaker 2: did weird stuff. I you know, I respectfully disagree. I
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  Speaker 2: don't think we've run out of ideas. I think we're
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  Speaker 2: definitely going weird with this. I like it. Yes, cool,
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  Speaker 2: It's gonna be a fun one. It's gonna be a
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  Speaker 2: grab bag type episode, and we're gonna wrap it up
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  Speaker 2: with some surprises.
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  Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah, we have something special for you at the end.
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  Speaker 1: What is it? You might ask?
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  Speaker 2: Stay tuned.
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  Speaker 1: So first things first, we like to introduce you to
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  Speaker 1: a fellow named Simeon Ellerton. This guy is British and
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  Speaker 1: British listeners you may already recognize his name because he's
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  Speaker 1: often referenced when someone talks about the notable British eccentricity.
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  Speaker 2: Speaking of British listeners over on our Facebook page at
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  Speaker 2: Ridiculous History, I got a real nice dang or we did,
• 4:25
  Speaker 2: I guess for our Guy Fowk episode where a listener
• 4:29
  Speaker 2: said that he cringed his way through the episode because
• 4:32
  Speaker 2: we pronounced the guy who was in charge of the
• 4:35
  Speaker 2: gunpowder plot, who we pronounced as Catsby, It's apparently Katsby
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  Speaker 2: And he said that just made him shrivel in horror.
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  Speaker 2: So hopefully we don't do that again. I'm sure I
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  Speaker 2: don't think there's any other way to pronounce Simeon Simon.
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  Speaker 2: Maybe what if it's pronounced Simon and we don't know
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  Speaker 2: the die is cast exactly, you know what, he's got
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  Speaker 2: a double down. We just got a roll with it.
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  Speaker 2: So Simeon Ellerton was He's often described in a coup
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  Speaker 2: ways in different accounts, one of which is a known
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  Speaker 2: a noted pedestrian.
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  Speaker 1: That is my favorite.
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  Speaker 2: I love that. I wish I was known as a
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  Speaker 2: noted pedestrian.
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  Speaker 1: Or a fitness enthusiast.
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  Speaker 2: Fitness enthusiast, you know, the term eccentric gets thrown around
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  Speaker 2: quite a lot. But let's just give you the broad Strokes.
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  Speaker 2: Who was sime and Ellerton.
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  Speaker 1: He was employed by the gentry of his neighborhood.
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  Speaker 2: Just the general gentry, to execute this is a quotation,
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  Speaker 2: to execute commissions in the South. We were sort of
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  Speaker 2: an assassin just of commissions. Oh I see, okay, which
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  Speaker 2: he executed with fidelity and diligence. Not that we're going
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  Speaker 2: to be vain about this, but we want you to
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  Speaker 2: know that's a quote, because neither of us would use
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  Speaker 2: execute or another version of it twice in the same
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  Speaker 2: CDs diligence. Where is that?
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  Speaker 3: No?
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  Speaker 2: So I guess what that means in normal human speak
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  Speaker 2: is that he he was kind of a courier, and
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  Speaker 2: that was directly tied to his fondness of the walk.
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  Speaker 1: Right, So it wasn't just that he enjoyed a stroll,
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  Speaker 1: which a lot of people do. He liked to walk
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  Speaker 1: incredibly long distances, and when he was on these meandering journeys,
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  Speaker 1: he picked up a weird habit which literally involved picking
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  Speaker 1: things up. Yep, he collected stones from across England and
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  Speaker 1: then he would just bring them back with him.
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  Speaker 2: I'm assuming in some sort of pile that he maintained.
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  Speaker 1: Yeah, he would carry them though on his head. Oh yeah,
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  Speaker 1: yeah right, But at first he just yeah, started piling
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  Speaker 1: stones on his land.
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  Speaker 2: He was so known as being a enthusiastic walker. That's
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  Speaker 2: probably what led him to be employed by the gentry
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  Speaker 2: in the first place. They were like, well, simon'll go,
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  Speaker 2: he's already walking from Surrey to god Yorkshire. English listeners,
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  Speaker 2: you can also school us on ridiculous history Facebook about
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  Speaker 2: the geography of England. But hey, spoiler alert, I don't
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  Speaker 2: know the geography of my country either, so you're not
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  Speaker 2: going to hurt my feelings. Oh man, oh man, I'm
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  Speaker 2: really bad at geography. But no, he would go like
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  Speaker 2: fifty miles on foot round trip, yeah.
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  Speaker 1: Or eighty kilometers for our friends across the pond.
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  Speaker 2: Oh while carrying these stones upon his head.
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  Speaker 1: Yeah yeah, which feels like a weird way to carry
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  Speaker 1: stone surely not balancing though, you know, one would think
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  Speaker 1: it depends on the size of the stone. Yeah, but
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  Speaker 1: given the distance, you would imagine he would have to
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  Speaker 1: hold it with both hands or have a contraption that
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  Speaker 1: he used to trap it to us.
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  Speaker 2: He wasn't a noted contraptionist.
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  Speaker 1: Though, No, he was not a contraptionaire. You think that
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  Speaker 1: would have figured into his CV, right, that's something you
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  Speaker 1: would mention. I think in this time period, a contraption
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  Speaker 1: would also be notable. So he's got this pie ella stones,
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  Speaker 1: and we've been doing this for years. He's been doing
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  Speaker 1: this for years and years and years, and eventually he
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  Speaker 1: looks around at the pile and he thinks I should
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  Speaker 1: do something. I should do something other than just walking
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  Speaker 1: and throwing these into a pile.
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  Speaker 2: Well, that is one interpretation, Ben. The other would be
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  Speaker 2: maybe he knew all along what he was going to
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  Speaker 2: do with it. I don't know what do you think?
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  Speaker 2: The record is unclear?
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  Speaker 1: The record is unclear. I would like to imagine that
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  Speaker 1: he had a plan, you know, WoT wouldn't you like
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  Speaker 1: to imagine that that's what I'm doing? Okay? Otherwise it
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  Speaker 1: seems indicative of something beyond eccentricity.
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  Speaker 2: Exactly exactly that plan in question is was that he
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  Speaker 2: was going to use these stones to build himself a
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  Speaker 2: little stone cottage that he would also design himself.
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  Speaker 1: And this was a brilliant plan financially speaking, because sure
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  Speaker 1: he didn't have to pay for someone else to haul
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  Speaker 1: the stones. He didn't have to pay for the stones himself.
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  Speaker 1: He was just finding them, but you know, in the
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  Speaker 1: hills by the road and doing all the transit on
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  Speaker 1: his own power. This, according to folks like Andy Staffer,
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  Speaker 1: the owner of Stauffer and Son's Construction, puts him ahead
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  Speaker 1: of his time by a matter of centuries.
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  Speaker 2: Yeah, very much so. I mean, the idea of using
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  Speaker 2: reclaimed material to build a home today is very much
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  Speaker 2: in fashion. Staffer says in an interview with How Stuff
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  Speaker 2: Works that using material it already exists on your land
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  Speaker 2: can be a huge advantage. And then the materials are
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  Speaker 2: free and you don't need to ship them to your jobs,
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  Speaker 2: Like can you imagine shipping masonry? You know that's that's expensive,
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  Speaker 2: very very expensive. Yeah, and he says, or your job site.
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  Speaker 2: And he says the challenge is that builders must ensure
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  Speaker 2: the items found on a property can be used for
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  Speaker 2: structural materials. Here's the thing too, though, Ben, This was
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  Speaker 2: in you know, the seven teen hundreds, and I can't
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  Speaker 2: imagine that there were exactly building codes, right, And did
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  Speaker 2: he own the land? That's the thing, you guys. There's
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  Speaker 2: a lot of conjecture here because there's precious little about
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  Speaker 2: this this fellow. One of the most prominent sources of
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  Speaker 2: the very few sources about him at all was a
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  Speaker 2: publication called the Yorkshire County Magazine, and it describes Simeon
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  Speaker 2: by way of his death in seventeen ninety nine. He's
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  Speaker 2: not dead to us yet for the purposes of this story,
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  Speaker 2: but I just want to read this to you for
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  Speaker 2: the sake of a little context. He died at Craike
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  Speaker 2: criikee Craig. What do you think, Ben, cri i k
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  Speaker 2: e wright in let us know, go Craik Craig. Yeah,
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  Speaker 2: I'm gonna do Craig in the County of Durham. Now
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  Speaker 2: that one at the advanced age of one hundred and
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  Speaker 2: four years old. No small task in those days, right Ben?
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  Speaker 1: So now, yeah, no small task. And now we see
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  Speaker 1: the advantage of his continual exercise that had to play
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  Speaker 1: some sort of role absolutely.
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  Speaker 2: And my whole question here is like what was his lineage?
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  Speaker 2: Where did he live before he built himself this stone hut?
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  Speaker 1: Yeah? What did it look like? Right? Did people come
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  Speaker 1: visit him?
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  Speaker 2: Because he sounds just sort of like a like a
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  Speaker 2: village odd ball who people would throw a couple of
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  Speaker 2: shillings to carry their letters because he was already going or.
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  Speaker 1: Really smart, determined guy with like Andy Dufrain and Shaushing
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  Speaker 1: redemption level dedication to.
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  Speaker 2: A task and forethought right, very forward thinking. It goes
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  Speaker 2: on to say, yeah, he was. So he died of
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  Speaker 2: the advanced age of one hundred and four, making him
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  Speaker 2: a centenarian.
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  Speaker 1: That happen, Yeah, centenarian over one hundred years old or
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  Speaker 1: just one hundred, but in his case one hundred and four.
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  Speaker 2: Got it. This obituary really goes on to say he
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  Speaker 2: was a noted pedestrian, Yes, I love that one. That
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  Speaker 2: and was often employed by gentlemen in the neighborhood on
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  Speaker 2: commissions to London and other places, which he always executed
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  Speaker 2: on foot. And as you said before, Ben with fidelity
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  Speaker 2: and diligence, so you know, he's a dependable guy and
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  Speaker 2: he's honest, very honest. He lived in a neat stone
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  Speaker 2: cottage of his own building. And what was remarkable he
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  Speaker 2: had literally carried it on his own head.
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  Speaker 1: And these would be for journeys of over fifty miles,
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  Speaker 1: and that would not be an infrequent amount of mileage
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  Speaker 1: for him. The story continues, so that account in the
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  Speaker 1: Yorkshire County Magazine is expanded upon in the Historical Register
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  Speaker 1: of Remarkable Events.
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  Speaker 2: That's true, And just a quick note, the headline for
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  Speaker 2: Simeon's little entry in the Yorkshire magazine was part of
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  Speaker 2: a list of Yorkshire centenarians.
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  Speaker 1: Yes, yeah, yeah, and there's a surprising number there. I
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  Speaker 1: always feel like it's surprising when there's more than one.
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  Speaker 2: Yeah.
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  Speaker 1: So what happens after he builds this cottage? He continues
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  Speaker 1: carrying stones, doesn't he?
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  Speaker 2: He does? And not only that, even leading up to
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  Speaker 2: building the cottage, he was looking for a particular type
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  Speaker 2: of stone. He wanted them to be just so. And
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  Speaker 2: I haven't seen anything listed as to what exactly the
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  Speaker 2: qualities were, but I would imagine they had to be
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  Speaker 2: pretty smooth, sure, and then they needed to be able
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  Speaker 2: to be stitched together or stacked in a way that
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  Speaker 2: would you know, make them sturdy.
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  Speaker 1: Sure load bearing.
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  Speaker 2: Yeah, not clear if he was using masonry or if
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  Speaker 2: he was like, you know, putting them together with concrete
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  Speaker 2: or anything, or if he was literally just stacking them.
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  Speaker 2: I don't know, what do you think man.
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  Speaker 1: Going for an esthetic? He may have just collected rocks
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  Speaker 1: that he enjoyed as well as rocks that he found
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  Speaker 1: suitable for construction. But yes, he would rarely come home
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  Speaker 1: without carrying stones, and he became known for this throughout
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  Speaker 1: the county. And let's go back to Andy Staufer for
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  Speaker 1: a moment here, because he has an anecdote about a
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  Speaker 1: house he was working on that was built in nineteen
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  Speaker 1: thirteen and had burned down and needed rebuilding. And this
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  Speaker 1: gives us a little bit of a look at the
• 14:10
  Speaker 1: appropriate rock for this kind of foundation.
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  Speaker 2: Yeah, it's true. He said the foundation of this house
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  Speaker 2: was made of river rocks that had been taken from
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  Speaker 2: the local river. But today you can't use rocks like
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  Speaker 2: that because of things like building codes. Right, he does
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  Speaker 2: say that you could use these natural, beautiful looking rocks
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  Speaker 2: to as decorative pieces. But Simeon clearly was you know,
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  Speaker 2: he wanted to build this on the cheap, as in
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  Speaker 2: on the no money. You know, his whole goal. I'm
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  Speaker 2: hoping the long term goal was to build his house
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  Speaker 2: out of these stones. And then so Stoffer goes on
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  Speaker 2: to add quote, if we had wanted to build a
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  Speaker 2: natural stone wall but didn't have access to this collection
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  Speaker 2: of rock already on the property, it would have caused
• 14:52
  Speaker 2: a considerable amount to import them. So in this case,
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  Speaker 2: having found materials is a great benefit for both the
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  Speaker 2: cost efficiency and beauty perspective, because again he had you know,
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  Speaker 2: no one, no one has a lifetime to carry rocks
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  Speaker 2: for a building job, but I mean seemed like he
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  Speaker 2: had all the time in the world. He's a very
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  Speaker 2: zen character to me. I really I kind of dig
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  Speaker 2: his whole vibe.
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  Speaker 1: It's interesting to watch your interpretation of him evolve even
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  Speaker 1: in the course of this episode. And we don't have
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  Speaker 1: a ton of information about Ellerton as we as we
• 15:24
  Speaker 1: said at the top, but we do know that he
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  Speaker 1: kept going in some way in a symbolic way. So
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  Speaker 1: after he has his home built, he's not carrying these heavy,
• 15:34
  Speaker 1: load bearing, potentially load bearing rocks on his head, but
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  Speaker 1: he's still walking around with a very interesting habit.
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  Speaker 2: Yeah, he had a bag of rocks, right, And to me,
• 15:45
  Speaker 2: this is sort of the clue I was looking for
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  Speaker 2: that he had a plan. He was that Andy Dufrain
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  Speaker 2: level of like forward thinking. You know, there was a
• 15:54
  Speaker 2: lot going on this. I'm like, you're right. My perspective
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  Speaker 2: on this guy really is evolving. And the more we
• 15:58
  Speaker 2: talk about him, I like him very very much.
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  Speaker 1: And it's reported that he still felt as though the
• 16:05
  Speaker 1: extra weight was a requirement for him to enjoy walking.
• 16:09
  Speaker 1: And maybe we end this part of weird people who
• 16:12
  Speaker 1: built weird things. Maybe we end it with one of
• 16:16
  Speaker 1: our favorite quotes that we found from Ellerton.
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  Speaker 2: Yeah. I mean, you know, he was a known dude
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  Speaker 2: around town and people would stop him. Seems like he
• 16:25
  Speaker 2: was probably pretty friendly because whenever someone would inquire a
• 16:29
  Speaker 2: reason for carrying these rocks or having a weight upon
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  Speaker 2: his head, he would always reply, tis to keep on
• 16:37
  Speaker 2: my hat. It's so beautiful, man.
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  Speaker 1: I think this guy seems like he'd be fun to
• 16:43
  Speaker 1: hang out.
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  Speaker 2: He really does, he really really does. I want to
• 16:48
  Speaker 2: build a religion around this man. Ah.
• 16:51
  Speaker 1: I'm glad that we're verging into spirituality here or the
• 16:56
  Speaker 1: more esoteric fields, because we found another person that we
• 17:02
  Speaker 1: wanted to explore, another weird guy or visionary who built
• 17:06
  Speaker 1: a weird thing, or should we say a visionary thing.
• 17:10
  Speaker 1: The choice, friends and neighbors is up to you. We
• 17:13
  Speaker 1: would like to introduce you to something called Coral Castle,
• 17:18
  Speaker 1: built by a man named Edward Leed Skeldon.
• 17:22
  Speaker 2: That's a doozy of a last name there.
• 17:23
  Speaker 1: He's Latvian. So there's a small town in Florida. It's
• 17:32
  Speaker 1: called Homestead, And in Homestead is one of the most
• 17:36
  Speaker 1: bizarre structures in Florida. It's a ten acre stone park
• 17:42
  Speaker 1: called Coral Castle. By himself, Edward built this thing, and
• 17:48
  Speaker 1: he made it using around two hundred and forty three
• 17:52
  Speaker 1: tons of gigantic coral blocks.
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  Speaker 2: Okay, so he's upping the anne here a little bit.
• 17:57
  Speaker 2: And there's about one hundred years later than our boys said,
• 18:00
  Speaker 2: and some technology does come into play for this man's story.
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  Speaker 2: But set the scene for us, Ben.
• 18:06
  Speaker 1: Sure, sure, So let's lead up to the construction of
• 18:12
  Speaker 1: the castle. You see when he was around twenty six.
• 18:16
  Speaker 1: Edward was born in January of eighteen eighty seven in Latvia.
• 18:22
  Speaker 1: We don't know too much about his childhood other than
• 18:25
  Speaker 1: he wasn't super well off, He wasn't part of the
• 18:28
  Speaker 1: Latvia and elite, and he only had a formal education
• 18:32
  Speaker 1: going up to about fourth grade, but he was a
• 18:35
  Speaker 1: real bookworm. And when he was around twenty six, he
• 18:39
  Speaker 1: was engaged to marry a lady named Agnes Scuffs. She
• 18:43
  Speaker 1: was about ten years younger than Edward, and when she
• 18:48
  Speaker 1: broke the engagement, he said, blast it all and he
• 18:52
  Speaker 1: decided that he was going to move to the United States.
• 18:56
  Speaker 1: So he immigrated to North America. Originally he arrived in
• 19:02
  Speaker 1: New York City and then he originally after that traveled
• 19:06
  Speaker 1: to Oregon, but he caught tuberculosis and this inspired him
• 19:12
  Speaker 1: to move to Florida for the climate, right yeah, yeah,
• 19:15
  Speaker 1: for the climate. Then he purchased an acre of land,
• 19:21
  Speaker 1: and according to newspaper reports of the time, he was
• 19:26
  Speaker 1: going to construct.
• 19:26
  Speaker 2: A home and an acre that was affordable. He didn't
• 19:30
  Speaker 2: have to be a swell to afford an acre, right, yeah, yeah, exactly.
• 19:33
  Speaker 2: Everyone had an opportunity. It was a land of opportunity
• 19:36
  Speaker 2: in those days. Now, you know, buy me an acre
• 19:38
  Speaker 2: in in Atlanta. I'll show you a square that costs
• 19:42
  Speaker 2: a million dollars.
• 19:43
  Speaker 1: Oh yeah, too true, and that might be a deal.
• 19:47
  Speaker 1: So like our earlier example with Ellerton, there's not a
• 19:50
  Speaker 1: whole lot known about this guy's early life, but there's
• 19:55
  Speaker 1: a lot of conjecture. What we do know is that
• 19:58
  Speaker 1: instead of building a normal house quote unquote normal house,
• 20:04
  Speaker 1: he spent over twenty years, almost the next three decades
• 20:10
  Speaker 1: expanding this strange, bizarre stone garden. And he worked in
• 20:19
  Speaker 1: secret and by himself, and even today some people will
• 20:26
  Speaker 1: argue that he had some sort of mysterious insight into construction.
• 20:32
  Speaker 2: Well, he was carrying a torch for Agnes, right this
• 20:35
  Speaker 2: whole time. This was all an act of sadness kind
• 20:39
  Speaker 2: of right, or it was like meant to be a
• 20:41
  Speaker 2: monument to her in some way, even though she totally
• 20:43
  Speaker 2: screwed him over.
• 20:44
  Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah, almost like a dirge or a breakup love
• 20:50
  Speaker 1: song in stone form. And you can see the sheer
• 20:54
  Speaker 1: scale of these things today. It's also strange that Ed
• 20:59
  Speaker 1: you want to just call him Ed for this, Yeah, Eddie, Yeah, Eddie,
• 21:02
  Speaker 1: there we go. Eddie was five feet tall and only
• 21:06
  Speaker 1: around one hundred pounds fell. Yeah, and no one saw
• 21:10
  Speaker 1: him work, like, literally, no one ever saw how he
• 21:16
  Speaker 1: constructed it. And when we say a rock garden, we're
• 21:20
  Speaker 1: not just talking about several large slabs of coral stuck,
• 21:26
  Speaker 1: you know, thirty feet apart from each other or something.
• 21:29
  Speaker 1: He was carving this. He even made furniture, these oversized beds,
• 21:35
  Speaker 1: rocking chairs, fountains, tables, sundials, a throne. So I guess
• 21:42
  Speaker 1: he made the I guess he made like a chair
• 21:45
  Speaker 1: and then said, you know what this outa asked a
• 21:47
  Speaker 1: rock or look regal.
• 21:49
  Speaker 2: Now do we talk about the fact that he started
• 21:51
  Speaker 2: this in one location and moved it about ten miles.
• 21:54
  Speaker 1: We should mention that. Yeah, because he had to expand it,
• 21:56
  Speaker 1: because he started with that one acre and he ended
• 21:58
  Speaker 1: up with ten He needed more room.
• 22:00
  Speaker 2: Where's his money coming from, Ben, Where's his money coming from?
• 22:03
  Speaker 1: Well, he did make some pamphlets, So what you're saying
• 22:09
  Speaker 1: is questionable. Questionable, No questionable. We know that he did
• 22:14
  Speaker 1: publish pamphlets on a number of subjects that people had
• 22:19
  Speaker 1: paid for, including pamphlets on his beliefs about magnetism. He
• 22:25
  Speaker 1: was another eccentric and because of these pamphlets he published
• 22:30
  Speaker 1: where he remarked on his perception of the nature of
• 22:35
  Speaker 1: you know, forces in the universe, A lot of people
• 22:38
  Speaker 1: had thought that he had some well they would call
• 22:42
  Speaker 1: it an ancient insight into gravity or magnetism. It did
• 22:46
  Speaker 1: not help that in one response, when people asked him
• 22:52
  Speaker 1: how he built Coral Castle, all he said was that
• 22:55
  Speaker 1: he had quote learned the secrets of the pyramids? Cool vague.
• 23:03
  Speaker 2: Yeah, So does this.
• 23:06
  Speaker 1: Mean that he had you know, for some of the
• 23:08
  Speaker 1: more conspiracy minded folks, would this mean that he had
• 23:11
  Speaker 1: access to some ancient wisdom? I mean maybe, according to
• 23:16
  Speaker 1: writers like Benjamin Radford, the secret of the pyramid may
• 23:20
  Speaker 1: be a real thing, largely forgotten construction techniques. But instead
• 23:24
  Speaker 1: of like strange electromagnetic forces or anti gravity or any
• 23:29
  Speaker 1: of that jazz, maybe he just built police tripods and
• 23:32
  Speaker 1: winches to exert leverage and provide mechanical advantage.
• 23:37
  Speaker 2: Yeah, and this is still there, right, Yeah, this is
• 23:39
  Speaker 2: still there.
• 23:40
  Speaker 1: You can go see it. The average weight of the
• 23:42
  Speaker 1: stones about fourteen tons each. He also made a tower
• 23:46
  Speaker 1: twenty two ton obelisk. And he was a master of
• 23:49
  Speaker 1: balancing things. So there's like a door that opens and
• 23:52
  Speaker 1: stuff all made of coral, all fragnus scruffs old.
• 23:56
  Speaker 2: Scruffy, and so you know. He passed away in I
• 23:59
  Speaker 2: think fifty one, and his nephew, who had been living
• 24:03
  Speaker 2: in Michigan at the time, inherited the castle. And this
• 24:06
  Speaker 2: is a kind of a creepy part. When the ownership
• 24:09
  Speaker 2: was being was switching hands. After the death, they found
• 24:12
  Speaker 2: a box of old Eddi's stuff, personal stuff, and it
• 24:16
  Speaker 2: had a list of instructions that led to the discovery
• 24:20
  Speaker 2: of his life savings, which was thirty five one hundred
• 24:24
  Speaker 2: dollars bills inflation.
• 24:26
  Speaker 1: That's been all right here we are thirty five one
• 24:29
  Speaker 1: hundred dollars in nineteen fifty three, is casey, could we
• 24:33
  Speaker 1: have a drome role please? Thirty two seven hundred and
• 24:43
  Speaker 1: sixty one dollars and ninety seven cents.
• 24:46
  Speaker 2: Okay, so not a rich man, but very much a
• 24:49
  Speaker 2: kindred spirit to Simeon Ellerton, big time forward thinking, ingenuitous?
• 24:57
  Speaker 2: Is that is that a word?
• 24:58
  Speaker 1: I mean? English is a living language.
• 25:00
  Speaker 2: So I'm gonna, I'm going I'm making it a word,
• 25:03
  Speaker 2: go coin it right now like it in But said,
• 25:05
  Speaker 2: don't you think they're both like? I mean? It is
• 25:07
  Speaker 2: kind of it's a bummer that Ed's story is a
• 25:09
  Speaker 2: little bit more sad. Although we don't know what happened
• 25:12
  Speaker 2: to Sammy and Allerton. We don't know why he was
• 25:14
  Speaker 2: carrying those stones. He could have been carrying them as
• 25:17
  Speaker 2: some kind of ritual for someone that he had lost
• 25:20
  Speaker 2: as well.
• 25:20
  Speaker 1: The legend that I just made up is that you
• 25:23
  Speaker 1: can still find him out there in the hills walking today.
• 25:27
  Speaker 2: A shiver just went up my spine, Ben when you
• 25:30
  Speaker 2: said that.
• 25:30
  Speaker 1: So so, yes, we do not know what happened to
• 25:34
  Speaker 1: Simey and Ellerton. We do know a little bit more
• 25:39
  Speaker 1: about Edward passing away, but we can end on a
• 25:43
  Speaker 1: positive note with his story by saying that he did
• 25:47
  Speaker 1: not just construct something grandiose, ambitious, and weird. He constructed
• 25:51
  Speaker 1: it to a high degree of competency. During Hurricane Andrew
• 25:55
  Speaker 1: in nineteen ninety two, not one of these stones shifted.
• 26:00
  Speaker 1: The eight foot wall that rings the property is still
• 26:04
  Speaker 1: at the same height. And today people will still tell you,
• 26:09
  Speaker 1: with varying degrees of credibility, what they think his secret
• 26:13
  Speaker 1: method actually was. And he himself claimed to harness a
• 26:20
  Speaker 1: perpetual power to move the stones.
• 26:25
  Speaker 2: He certainly possessed a perpetual power to move me, my friend.
• 26:29
  Speaker 2: And you know another connection between Simeon and Edward. I
• 26:34
  Speaker 2: wish we knew a little bit more about Simon about
• 26:36
  Speaker 2: how long it took him to collect all those stones.
• 26:38
  Speaker 2: We do know, though, however, about Edward that it took
• 26:41
  Speaker 2: him from nineteen twenty three to nineteen fifty one to
• 26:45
  Speaker 2: knock out that that coral castle.
• 26:49
  Speaker 1: And you know, if you ever find yourself in the area,
• 26:54
  Speaker 1: do pay it a visit. You know, it's a part
• 26:57
  Speaker 1: of obscure history that a lot of people miss. But
• 27:00
  Speaker 1: he was not the only person who built a weird thing.
• 27:04
  Speaker 1: I want to give a shout out to just a
• 27:06
  Speaker 1: couple of people.
• 27:07
  Speaker 2: Please we promise that at the top of the show,
• 27:08
  Speaker 2: we can't let people down.
• 27:10
  Speaker 1: Oh right, well, shout out to rich Art. That's Richard
• 27:15
  Speaker 1: with a T instead of a D. Rich Art. Soa
• 27:18
  Speaker 1: Sowa who built the very inspiring Spiral Island and its replacement,
• 27:26
  Speaker 1: joy Z Island j O y x ee. These are
• 27:31
  Speaker 1: built out of sustainable materials. He built the island by himself.
• 27:36
  Speaker 1: The first one was sixty six feet in diameter, made
• 27:39
  Speaker 1: out of one hundred thousand bottles, and then expanded as
• 27:43
  Speaker 1: he planted mangroves growing on the island.
• 27:46
  Speaker 2: It's got a beach house. Mangrove is that like a mango.
• 27:51
  Speaker 1: It's a it's a type of small tree that grows
• 27:54
  Speaker 1: in coastal waters or you know, brackish semi salty waters
• 27:59
  Speaker 1: got it, so he continued growing this uh, partially as
• 28:03
  Speaker 1: an artistic statement and partially is an aim toward a
• 28:07
  Speaker 1: you know, an example of how we could live more sustainably.
• 28:16
  Speaker 1: There's another man named Estavao Silva do Contao who built
• 28:21
  Speaker 1: on his own a housemaid of found materials. You can
• 28:26
  Speaker 1: see in the walls, yeah, cups, rocks, yeah, sculpture and.
• 28:32
  Speaker 2: Reminds me of Sea Rock City.
• 28:35
  Speaker 1: Oh that's a good call too.
• 28:36
  Speaker 2: That's so cool. I wish I wish this was an
• 28:38
  Speaker 2: audio podcast. And this is just this is just probably
• 28:41
  Speaker 2: titillating you in a negative way. But look, what's what's
• 28:44
  Speaker 2: how do you? How do you find this? Ben? Uh?
• 28:47
  Speaker 1: You can you can find this. There's a great thing
• 28:50
  Speaker 1: you can see on Reuters called Brazil's homegrown Goudie by
• 28:55
  Speaker 1: a Polo Whittaker because this is located in uh Valla
• 29:00
  Speaker 1: in Salpaulo, and it drew comparisons to a famous Catalan
• 29:06
  Speaker 1: architect named Antony Galdi. And the guy who built it
• 29:10
  Speaker 1: had never heard of this architect, he had never seen
• 29:13
  Speaker 1: any photos of that work. He had just built this
• 29:15
  Speaker 1: home for himself and then later started a family in
• 29:18
  Speaker 1: it and you know, personally, I find these stories incredibly
• 29:22
  Speaker 1: inspiring and we'd like to hear some more stories from you.
• 29:28
  Speaker 1: Is there anybody in your neck of the global woods
• 29:30
  Speaker 1: who has built a strange, fascinating structure edifice under their
• 29:35
  Speaker 1: own power? And you know what, you know what, let's
• 29:38
  Speaker 1: open it up a little. I think let's maybe not
• 29:41
  Speaker 1: say just a single person, but maybe like a family.
• 29:44
  Speaker 1: Absolutely there's some siblings or something.
• 29:47
  Speaker 2: Yeah, And speaking of broadening the net, I think it's
• 29:49
  Speaker 2: time for our first ever attempt at a new segment
• 29:53
  Speaker 2: we'd like to call extra Credit.
• 29:59
  Speaker 1: Yes, that's right, Friends and neighbors. Extra Credit, the segment
• 30:02
  Speaker 1: where we are expanding the typical show that we might
• 30:08
  Speaker 1: normally do, you know. And we've been talking back and
• 30:11
  Speaker 1: forth about this one, and we're excited because what better
• 30:14
  Speaker 1: way to kick it off than with a very very
• 30:18
  Speaker 1: special guest.
• 30:19
  Speaker 2: Yes, we have a child, a human child here in
• 30:23
  Speaker 2: the podcast studio, smartest one in the room. She is
• 30:25
  Speaker 2: the smartest one in the room, and she's actually we're related.
• 30:30
  Speaker 2: Nepotism going on here. This is Ladies and Gentlemen, Eden Brown, Oho,
• 30:38
  Speaker 2: you just waved. We don't really know what this segment
• 30:42
  Speaker 2: is all about. We're just gonna play it by ear
• 30:44
  Speaker 2: are you Are you into it? Okay, We're gonna ask
• 30:47
  Speaker 2: you some questions. Okay, well you got this.
• 30:50
  Speaker 1: Okay, you've got this. Eden, So so thank you so
• 30:54
  Speaker 1: much for coming on the show. And we're really we're
• 30:58
  Speaker 1: really thrilled to have you. And you heard earlier we
• 31:02
  Speaker 1: were talking about these people who built these crazy things
• 31:05
  Speaker 1: out of stone by themselves. If you were going to
• 31:08
  Speaker 1: build something like that, what what? What kind of thing
• 31:11
  Speaker 1: would you build?
• 31:12
  Speaker 4: I would build the sculpture of a unicorn?
• 31:16
  Speaker 1: Oh?
• 31:17
  Speaker 3: Yeah?
• 31:17
  Speaker 1: How big would it be?
• 31:19
  Speaker 3: Jude?
• 31:20
  Speaker 2: Can you give us some specific measurements? Could you sketch
• 31:22
  Speaker 2: it out for us? Hang on, ladies and gentlemen, she's sketching.
• 31:28
  Speaker 1: We're handy, miss Brown, some pen and papery. Noel, could
• 31:31
  Speaker 1: you narrate?
• 31:32
  Speaker 2: Okay, she's drawing a line here, looks like that's the unicorns.
• 31:36
  Speaker 2: I'm thinking that's its butt. No, that's the horn. Excuse me,
• 31:39
  Speaker 2: excuse me? Okay, I think we get the idea. So Eden,
• 31:42
  Speaker 2: Why why a unicorn? And what would this mean to you?
• 31:45
  Speaker 2: What would you want?
• 31:46
  Speaker 4: I'm obsessed with You're obsessed with unicorns?
• 31:50
  Speaker 2: Really? Is that true? Do you what what is it
• 31:55
  Speaker 2: about unicorns that you enjoy so much?
• 31:58
  Speaker 4: They're magical and they dance on rainbows?
• 32:03
  Speaker 2: Do they?
• 32:04
  Speaker 4: Yes?
• 32:05
  Speaker 2: I did not know this, so I would you know what?
• 32:08
  Speaker 1: I am inspired by that. I would definitely go see
• 32:11
  Speaker 1: a massive unicorn. Where would you build this unicorn?
• 32:17
  Speaker 2: Hmmm?
• 32:18
  Speaker 4: I would build it in my backyard.
• 32:23
  Speaker 2: And would you charge admission? Because that is one thing
• 32:26
  Speaker 2: these two stories. Our second guy with the coral castle,
• 32:29
  Speaker 2: it did eventually start making a little money off of tours.
• 32:32
  Speaker 1: That's true.
• 32:33
  Speaker 2: You know, his heart was in the right place about
• 32:34
  Speaker 2: just like making it. And then once it was done,
• 32:36
  Speaker 2: it's like, well, you know what I mean, I did
• 32:37
  Speaker 2: all this work, I might as well make a little scratch.
• 32:40
  Speaker 2: So and Eden, I know that you upfront would be
• 32:42
  Speaker 2: doing it just for the pure joy of doing it.
• 32:45
  Speaker 2: But once it was done, how much would you charge
• 32:47
  Speaker 2: for people to come see this giant stone unicorn in
• 32:50
  Speaker 2: your backyard?
• 32:52
  Speaker 4: I would cost twenty five dollars to come.
• 32:57
  Speaker 2: And see it. That seems a little steep.
• 32:59
  Speaker 1: Twenty five dollars. Do you get a shirt?
• 33:01
  Speaker 4: Yes?
• 33:02
  Speaker 1: Okay, I'm back in Okay. So I've got a question.
• 33:07
  Speaker 1: I'm sure all the all the listeners out there are wondering, Eating,
• 33:11
  Speaker 1: and that is would the unicorn have colors to it?
• 33:15
  Speaker 1: Would it be?
• 33:17
  Speaker 4: I would paint the rocks?
• 33:19
  Speaker 1: Uh huh? And yeah, fantastic for twenty five dollars.
• 33:24
  Speaker 2: Yeah, I would hope you get a little color for
• 33:26
  Speaker 2: twenty five All right, well, okay, I guess this is
• 33:30
  Speaker 2: what extra credit is.
• 33:32
  Speaker 1: Thank you so much, Eating for coming onto the show
• 33:36
  Speaker 1: and hanging out with me and your dad and our
• 33:38
  Speaker 1: super producer Casey.
• 33:40
  Speaker 2: Spoiler alert, Eden took a sick day to day and
• 33:42
  Speaker 2: that's why she's here day and before she infects us
• 33:47
  Speaker 2: all we better get a move on. We hope that
• 33:51
  Speaker 2: you enjoyed the show. We hope you enjoyed our Running
• 33:54
  Speaker 2: Out of Ideas episode, which actually turned out to be
• 33:56
  Speaker 2: kind of chock full of ideas.
• 33:57
  Speaker 1: I'm so weird a doubt that you call it the
• 33:59
  Speaker 1: running out of ideas episode.
• 34:00
  Speaker 2: It's just a subtitle I'm working on.
• 34:03
  Speaker 1: All right. Well, I am still a fan of weird
• 34:07
  Speaker 1: people building weird things.
• 34:08
  Speaker 2: That's fantastic, weird people building weird things. The Running out
• 34:11
  Speaker 2: of Ideas episode it's a little long.
• 34:14
  Speaker 1: Well, we'll workshop it and maybe our next episode of
• 34:17
  Speaker 1: extra credit will take us to Coral Castle itself for.
• 34:20
  Speaker 2: Anywhere, Chuck E Cheese, you know the mall.
• 34:23
  Speaker 1: Yeah, Dave and Busters, whatever you got the Grand Canyon.
• 34:27
  Speaker 2: No, it's true. The thing about extra credit is that
• 34:29
  Speaker 2: it's very open ended and it's just a good way
• 34:31
  Speaker 2: to do something a little different at the end of
• 34:33
  Speaker 2: the show.
• 34:35
  Speaker 1: And of course, as always, we would like to thank
• 34:39
  Speaker 1: our super producer, Casey Pegram. While we're recording this, and
• 34:45
  Speaker 1: Eden saw this earlier when she was sitting outside of
• 34:48
  Speaker 1: the booth, we sometimes turned to Casey and raise our
• 34:51
  Speaker 1: eyebrows to check to see if he's if he's giving
• 34:55
  Speaker 1: his look of approval, and he seems okay overall, I
• 34:58
  Speaker 1: think so too.
• 34:59
  Speaker 2: Yeah, it seems like he's in a very fine chipper mood.
• 35:01
  Speaker 2: So definitely, big thanks to Casey, Big thanks to Alex Williams,
• 35:05
  Speaker 2: who composed our theme. Most importantly, big thanks to you
• 35:08
  Speaker 2: for tuning in and hanging out with us for another
• 35:11
  Speaker 2: episode of Ridiculous History. If you have any thoughts, comments, complaints,
• 35:15
  Speaker 2: keep the complaints, just just give us the nice stuff.
• 35:17
  Speaker 2: You can write to us at ridiculous at HowStuffWorks dot com.
• 35:20
  Speaker 1: Oh and we do have a new complaint department. You
• 35:25
  Speaker 1: can write directly to our complaint department Jonathan dot Strickland
• 35:29
  Speaker 1: at HowStuffWorks dot com. You can find us on Instagram, Facebook, Twitter,
• 35:36
  Speaker 1: and various other internettings. I'm gonna just go with internetting.
• 35:41
  Speaker 2: I like it the Internet.
• 35:42
  Speaker 1: It's a net and of course a very special thanks
• 35:47
  Speaker 1: to our inaugural guest of extra credit, Eden Brown. No,
• 35:51
  Speaker 1: let's say we give her the last word today.
• 35:55
  Speaker 3: Goodbye.
• 36:14
  Speaker 2: For more podcasts from iHeartRadio, visit the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts,
• 36:18
  Speaker 2: or wherever you listen to your favorite shows