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Stairway to Heaven · Aaron Mahnke's Cabinet of Curiosities

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  Speaker 1: Our world is full of the unexplainable, and if history
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  Speaker 1: is an open book, all of these amazing tales are
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  Speaker 1: right there on display, just waiting for us to explore.
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  Speaker 1: Welcome to the Cabinet of Curiosities. A mysterious, stranger and
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  Speaker 1: impossible task. It's a common story and William Barrett's novel
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  Speaker 1: The Lilies of the Field, a young traveling army vet
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  Speaker 1: named Homer Smith stumbles upon an order of Catholic nuns.
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  Speaker 1: They are poor and in desperate need of help with
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  Speaker 1: their fence. Homer fixes it for them, but instead of
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  Speaker 1: paying him, the nuns believe that he is a gift
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  Speaker 1: from God, meant to build them a church, and spoiler alerts,
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  Speaker 1: he does build them that church. The nuns insist that
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  Speaker 1: he stayed for the grand opening the next day so
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  Speaker 1: that he can be recognized for his work, but Homer
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  Speaker 1: doesn't need recognition. He's done his job, so he leaves
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  Speaker 1: in the middle of the night before they wake up.
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  Speaker 1: The Lilies of the Field is fiction, but Homer's story
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  Speaker 1: is far from a tall tale. Back in the eighteen seventies,
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  Speaker 1: there was a small order of nuns living in Santa Fe,
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  Speaker 1: New Mexico. Their bishop Jean Baptiste Lammy oversaw them a
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  Speaker 1: group known as the Sisters of Loretto, and had a
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  Speaker 1: chapel built for them. The architect, Antoine Moulay sadly died
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  Speaker 1: before construction finished, so he did not get to see
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  Speaker 1: the Our Lady of Light chapel in all its glory,
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  Speaker 1: nor was he able to fix the one glaring problem
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  Speaker 1: left over. Twenty two ft above the pews of the
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  Speaker 1: main chapel was the choir loft, with no way to
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  Speaker 1: get up to it. The chapel well, big enough for
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  Speaker 1: the most modest congregation living nearby, was too small to
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  Speaker 1: accommodate a regular staircase. Various ideas were suggested, ladders, lift systems,
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  Speaker 1: but nothing seemed right. With their options limited, the sisters
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  Speaker 1: prayed to St. Joseph for an answer. St. Joseph was
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  Speaker 1: the patron saint of carp Anders, and at that moment
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  Speaker 1: he was the only thing in the world who could
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  Speaker 1: have helped them. The nuns had been praying for over
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  Speaker 1: a week when on the ninth day there was a
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  Speaker 1: knock at their door. It was a man, and he
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  Speaker 1: brought with him a mule carrying carpentry tools. He inspected
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  Speaker 1: the space and saw a way to provide the sisters
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  Speaker 1: with access to the loft without having to build an
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  Speaker 1: enormous staircase that would occupy the whole chapel. He just
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  Speaker 1: asked for one thing, not payment, only privacy. The sisters
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  Speaker 1: could not be present while he worked. Whenever Our Lady
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  Speaker 1: of Light was in use by the nuns or other
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  Speaker 1: members of the church, the man disappeared. He would return
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  Speaker 1: when the chapel was empty. It's unclear how long it
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  Speaker 1: actually took for the visitor to complete his work, but
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  Speaker 1: the results spoke for themselves. The spiral staircase was a
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  Speaker 1: work of art. It was steep, and some of the
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  Speaker 1: nuns could only descend on their hands and knees to
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  Speaker 1: avoid falling the twenty two ft below, but regardless of
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  Speaker 1: their fears, they were aesthetic. Their prayers had been answered.
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  Speaker 1: To thank the man for his work, the nuns insisted
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  Speaker 1: he stay for a party in his honor. However, when
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  Speaker 1: the time came to celebrate, he was nowhere to be found.
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  Speaker 1: They reached out to anyone in town who might have
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  Speaker 1: known or worked with the man, but no one had
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  Speaker 1: ever heard of him. He simply vanished without a trace,
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  Speaker 1: and the staircase itself begged more questions than answers. The
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  Speaker 1: thirty three wooden steps wrapped around two sixty degree turns,
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  Speaker 1: yet the carpenter didn't use any nails or glue to
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  Speaker 1: secure them. Each step was fastened to the winding rails
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  Speaker 1: using only wooden dolls. In addition, the staircase as a
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  Speaker 1: whole had no support structure to keep it upright. The
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  Speaker 1: base did all the heavy lifting, making its impeccable construction
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  Speaker 1: even more of a mystery. And finally, the wood the
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  Speaker 1: carpenter had used on the staircase had gone unknown until recently.
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  Speaker 1: A test concluded that the staircase was made of spruce.
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  Speaker 1: While there are some spruce trees native to the southwestern
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  Speaker 1: United States, the variety of spruce that was used on
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  Speaker 1: this staircase came from a much colder climate, places like Alaska.
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  Speaker 1: An unknown visitor showing up to build a staircase in
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  Speaker 1: a church sounded odd enough, but one with a donkey
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  Speaker 1: carrying Alaskan wood through New Mexico sounded even stranger. While
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  Speaker 1: it only took one hundred years, but eventually the truth
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  Speaker 1: about the bisterious carpenter came to light. Historian Mary straw
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  Speaker 1: Cook spent almost a decade researching the story behind the
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  Speaker 1: Seven Sisters and their unique staircase. She even wrote a
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  Speaker 1: book about them. The man who showed up at the
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  Speaker 1: chapel with his mule and a toolbox went by the
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  Speaker 1: name Fressois Jean Rocas. He was a member of the Campaignons,
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  Speaker 1: kind of a French version of the Freemasons. Rocas arrived
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  Speaker 1: in New Mexico with the express purpose of assisting the
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  Speaker 1: nuns with their staircase. But that would that he built
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  Speaker 1: it with It didn't come from Alaska after all, but
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  Speaker 1: a place even farther away, France. Sadly, Mr Rocas was
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  Speaker 1: killed in eighteen ninety four, about ten years after he
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  Speaker 1: finished building the stair case. He was shot in his
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  Speaker 1: home in Dog Canyon, New Mexico. But not to worry,
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  Speaker 1: Rocas would eventually be reunited with his greatest work and
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  Speaker 1: his lasting legacy. His body is buried in the cemetery
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  Speaker 1: just outside the Our Lady of Light Chapel in Santa Fe,
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  Speaker 1: just feet away from its beautiful wooden spiral staircase. When
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  Speaker 1: you're born the fifth of six children, you might act
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  Speaker 1: out to get attention. After all, you're not the baby
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  Speaker 1: of the family, and you're not the oldest, so it
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  Speaker 1: takes some doing to make your siblings and even your
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  Speaker 1: parents notice you. Born around eighteen oh seven to Mayo
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  Speaker 1: Greenleaf Patch and Abigail McIntyre, Sam Patch's childhood, well, it
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  Speaker 1: really didn't exist. After his family moved from Massachusetts Rhode Island,
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  Speaker 1: Sam had to help support his large family. He got
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  Speaker 1: a job in a cotton mill, but on the side
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  Speaker 1: he had a kind of unique hobby. He'd liked to
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  Speaker 1: jump off of things. He got to start by jumping
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  Speaker 1: into the Blackstone River from the top of the mill
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  Speaker 1: dam and a nearby bridge. The other child workers would
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  Speaker 1: join him, while some try to keep up with his
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  Speaker 1: ever growing heights. Only Sam was able to leap deftly
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  Speaker 1: into the waters below from the highest points in Rhode Island.
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  Speaker 1: By the time he was in his twenties, Sam had
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  Speaker 1: moved to Patterson, New Jersey, to work in a new
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  Speaker 1: mill spinning cotton bear. But Sam wasn't the only recent
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  Speaker 1: arrival to the growing city. A new bridge was being
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  Speaker 1: constructed over the great falls of the Passaic River. The
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  Speaker 1: owner of the land, Timothy Crane, had started to gentrify
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  Speaker 1: the area by turning public picnic grounds into upscale eateries
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  Speaker 1: and gardens, and in order to reach these new establishments,
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  Speaker 1: he built a wooden bridge for residents to cross. Sam
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  Speaker 1: wasn't thrilled with the idea of his fellow workers being
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  Speaker 1: forced out of the area, but the bridge looked promising.
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  Speaker 1: On the day Crane opened it to the public, Sam
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  Speaker 1: saw his chance to steal the spotlight for himself. Clad
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  Speaker 1: in nothing but his shirt and underwear, Sam leapt from
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  Speaker 1: eighty feet above the falls into the water down below.
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  Speaker 1: The crowd cheered, and Sam quickly became known around town
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  Speaker 1: as the Jersey Jumper. He gave a few more performances
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  Speaker 1: from the bridge before moving on to bigger stunts, from
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  Speaker 1: taller bridges to the top of a ship's mast. Every
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  Speaker 1: time Sam Patch hit the water, his fame grew skyward.
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  Speaker 1: But the biggest heights was yet to come. In order
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  Speaker 1: to drum up tourism for Niagara Falls, Sam was hired
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  Speaker 1: to perform his most dangerous jump to date. He leapt
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  Speaker 1: from the base of the falls into the Niagara River below.
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  Speaker 1: A boat patrolled the area for Patch, who was supposed
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  Speaker 1: to re emerge where he landed, but he couldn't be found.
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  Speaker 1: The crowd held its breath as they watched and waited,
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  Speaker 1: no sign of Sam anywhere. The jump had been too high.
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  Speaker 1: They thought no one could have survived that, and then
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  Speaker 1: they saw it movement on the shore. Sam had made
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  Speaker 1: it out. Everyone cheered for the dared level celebrity. Less
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  Speaker 1: than a week later, ten thousand people flocked to Niagara
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  Speaker 1: Falls to see him do it all over again. But
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  Speaker 1: there were still greater heights to achieve, and Sam saw
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  Speaker 1: his next challenge in Rochester, New York. The papers ran
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  Speaker 1: advertisements leading up to the jump on November six of
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  Speaker 1: eighteen twenty nine, asking four donations to cover his travel expenses.
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  Speaker 1: They also promised another performer would be taking the leap
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  Speaker 1: as well. Between Niagara Falls and Rochester, Sam gained an
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  Speaker 1: assistant for his act, a pet bear cub. At two
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  Speaker 1: o'clock in the afternoon, in front of over seven thousand people,
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  Speaker 1: Sam led the cub by its collar to the edge
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  Speaker 1: of High Falls, ninety seven feet above the Genesee River
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  Speaker 1: and pushed it over. The bear emerged from the water unscathed,
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  Speaker 1: and now it was time for Sam to take the spotlight,
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  Speaker 1: which he did with a plum The jump was a
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  Speaker 1: roaring success. The donations, however, were not hoping to squeeze
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  Speaker 1: a little more money out of them. Sam had a
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  Speaker 1: tall platform that elevated him drew ft above the river,
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  Speaker 1: higher than the edge of the falls. The local papers
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  Speaker 1: advertised the encore performance as Sam Patches last jump. He'd
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  Speaker 1: only intended to take a break during the winter months.
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  Speaker 1: He didn't realize how right the newspapers would really be.
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  Speaker 1: The following Friday, Sam climbed up on the top of
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  Speaker 1: the platform and spoke to the audience, and then took
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  Speaker 1: his leap. Something was wrong. Though his body tightened, his legs,
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  Speaker 1: which were usually squeezed together, had separated when he was
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  Speaker 1: halfway down. When his body hit the water hard, it
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  Speaker 1: disappeared beneath the surface. Boats scoured for signs of him everywhere.
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  Speaker 1: The crowd watched the shore to see if he had
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  Speaker 1: swam his way to safety. No one would have an
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  Speaker 1: answer until four months later, when his body was found
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  Speaker 1: along the shore seven miles downstream. Sam Patch died at
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  Speaker 1: the peak of his career as a national celebrity, but
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  Speaker 1: looking back, he might have benefited from the sage advice
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  Speaker 1: of a popular song that would a I Have about
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  Speaker 1: one seventy years later, penned by the philosophers known today
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  Speaker 1: as TLC. Don't go chasing waterfalls. They wrote, please stick
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  Speaker 1: to the rivers and lakes that you're used to. I
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  Speaker 1: hope you've enjoyed today's guided tour of the Cabinet of Curiosities.
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  Speaker 1: Subscribe for free on Apple Podcasts, or learn more about
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  Speaker 1: the show by visiting Curiosities podcast dot com. The show
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  Speaker 1: was created by me Aaron Manky in partnership with how
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  Speaker 1: Stuff Works. I make another award winning show called Lore,
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  Speaker 1: which is a podcast, book series, and television show, and
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  Speaker 1: you can learn all about it over at the World
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  Speaker 1: of Lore dot com. And until next time, stay curious.