March 19, 2026 • 11 mins
Two enterprising people from our past, each with a goal of bridging the past and the future with curious deeds in the present.
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Speaker 1 (00:04):
Welcome to Aaron Manke's Cabinet of Curiosities, a production of
iHeartRadio and Grimm and Mild. Our world is full of
the unexplainable, and if history is an open book, all
of these amazing tales are right there on display, just
waiting for us to explore. Welcome to the Cabinet of Curiosities.
(00:36):
Legends abound in South Carolina's Low Country, yet one eclipses
them all. A larger than life figure whose mastery of
the region's tangled swamps and marshes terrified the British during
the Revolutionary War. A man who could reportedly summon battalions
of soldiers within the forest and then disappear into the darkness.
(00:56):
It was rumored that he blew up the Georgetown Artillery
single match, and if you take a ghost tour of
the city today, you'll hear stories of his spirit guiding
lost travelers through the swamp. There is some measure of
truth to the stories of this terrible figure. His name
was Francis Marion, and his actions during the War for
America's Independence earned him the nickname the swamp Fox. Marion
(01:19):
was born in January of seventeen thirty two near what
is now Berkeley County, thirty miles inland from the city
of Charleston. He grew up outdoors, becoming an avid fisherman
and hunter, and because of this he gained an intimate
knowledge of the swamps and forests along the Cooper and
Edistone rivers and was an expert in navigating them. He
further expanded his skills when he served as a militia
(01:41):
lieutenant in the French and Indian War, where his familiarity
with the frontier proved valuable as a scout and as
a commander of irregular detachments that relied on ambush, raid
movement and intimate use of terrain. In seventeen eighty, Charleston
became a major focus of British strategy, which aimed to
seize the city and use it as a stronghold in
(02:03):
the fight against revolutionary forces. It was at the time
the largest port in the Southern Colonies, and it helped
to supply forces throughout the Southeast. By capturing Charleston, the
British could effectively cut off support to much of the
continental army. On January twenty ninth, approximately two thousand British
troops landed in and around Charleston Harbor. By February two,
(02:26):
they had captured Fort Moultrie and turning its artillery against
the city. Within the week, they'd begun a steady barrage
against Charleston's defenses, while British troops began slowly circling the
city on land, digging trenches to lay siege to the town.
On March twenty ninth, they succeeded in breaking the opposing
army at the Battle of Monk's Corner, forcing the Continental
(02:48):
Army's retreat. Then on May twelfth, the siege ended when
Continental General Benjamin Lincoln signed articles of capitulation as the
British took control of the port city. Approximately six hundred
were dead at another thirty five hundred had been taken prisoner.
It was a decisive victory, and the Redcoats now had
a base of operations to spread out across the South,
(03:09):
but Charleston would not prove easy to hold. After Charleston fell,
Marion began a gorilla campaign to assist the army in
reclaiming the city. He worked closely with the militia of
Colonel Thomas Sumter to establish camps in nearby forests and
swamps surrounding the Santee River that would be hidden from
British forces, and from there he used the dense foliage
(03:31):
and the shallow waters to conceal himself and his troops
when spying on enemy supply routes, ambushing ammunition convoys and
destroying what they could not carry. The largest of these
ambushes took place at Briar Creek when his men captured
a British supply depot and destroyed a powder magazine, forcing
the British military to divert troops away from the city,
(03:52):
and so he nipped away at those laying siege, occasionally
raiding food stores and destroying artillery, and then disappearing back
into the swamp. And Marian used psychological tactics as well.
Over the years, he cultivated a network of support in
the communities north of the city, using them to help
spread word of a phantom army hiding within the swamps,
(04:14):
setting fires on hilltops and screaming in the middle of
the night, convincing the British Army that they were being
stalked by ghosts. When the British Army finally managed to
strike back, the results of Marion's efforts were loud and clear.
The British supply lines had been so thoroughly depleted that
their soldiers arrived under fed and under supplied, which helped
Continental forces land a decisive victory in January of seventeen
(04:39):
eighty one. The defeats left the British forces diminished, and
further decisive winds, aided by Marian's continuing raids, slowly made
holding the city of Charleston impossible. The British were on
the defensive in the South now as well as in
the north, and their forces finally evacuated the city on
December eleventh of seventeen eighty two. Francis Marian's relentless hidden
(05:01):
run tactics turned the landscape of the Low Country into
a weapon of its own, forcing the British to fight
a war they could not win against foes they couldn't track.
By starving their supply trains, scattering their troops, and adding
a bit of folklore, Marian helped turn a hopeless siege
into a series of setbacks, ultimately leading to the liberation
(05:22):
of Charleston. His legacy endures not only in the folklore
that still haunts ghost tour guides and riverbanks, but in
the very notion that a small mobile force, armed with
intimate knowledge of its terrain can often tip the balance
of a great war. Robert was a shrewd business man.
(05:53):
He saw opportunities where a few others did. He made
his fortune selling chainsaws of all things printed with his
name on them in big, bold letters. He invested in oil,
created steam powered vehicles. He built airplanes, and created, at
the time the world's tallest fountain. And with such impressive accomplishments,
it's easy to see why no one questioned Robert McCulloch's
(06:15):
business intuition when he set his sites on a barren
twenty six miles of Arizona Desert in nineteen fifty eight.
The land had previously been used as an Army Air
Corps resting camp during World War Two, but nothing permanent
had ever been built there. But when Robert McCulloch looked
out at the vast desert stretching toward the Colorado River,
he didn't see a desolate landscape. He saw an opportunity.
(06:38):
He planned to build a city there, attracting families and
retirees who'd loved the southwest location. The hazy Orange sunsets
and the calm flowing waters of the Colorado River, and
he tested it for himself too. The first thing he
built in his new town was a fishing cabin situated
on the Lake Havasu basin. McCullough told people at the
time the fish were eager to buy, which seemed like
(07:00):
a good omen to him. Unfortunately, the buyers weren't willing
to bite. McCulloch's land, which he thought would sell fast,
didn't appeal to many people at all. Firstly, there was
the fact that it was so remote, situated in the
middle of the desert, with the nearest city almost a
four hour drive away. Even the closest small town was
miles and miles away from it. The climate was hot
(07:22):
and dry, which meant the land couldn't be used for
farming or livestock, and since Lake Havasu City hadn't even
been built yet, there was nothing to attract visitors. McCulloch
refused to give up. There must be a way to
encourage people to buy property and move to the area.
He consulted with his real estate agent, a man named
Robert Plumer, and to his surprise, Plumer said that he
(07:44):
was sure he had a solution, although it was a
pretty unusual one. Now from here, I'm going to take
a sharp left turn, so please try not to get whiplash.
Have you heard the nursery rhyme London Bridge is falling down?
Of course you have. But what you may not know
is that in nineteen six twenty seven it actually was
falling down, which honestly shouldn't be a surprise. The bridge
(08:05):
was a relic of the past, after all, having been
built in eighteen thirty one, and as London expanded around
it and traffic demands increased, the bridge was becoming dangerously
weak and desperately in need of being replaced. That's when
one of the city councilors came up with a novel idea.
In order to recoup some of the money the city
would lose building a new one, he suggested London auction
(08:26):
off their famous bridge to the highest bidder, and the
real estate agent Plumer Well he thought that McCulloch should
buy it. It would attract more land buyers, give people
a reason to visit Lake Havasu City, and add to
McCulloch's impressive legacy, and unsurprisingly he went for it. In
April of nineteen sixty eight, Robert McCulloch became the proud
(08:47):
new owner of London Bridge for just shy of two
point five million dollars. And then came the next challenge,
moving the bridge from London to Arizona. To begin, McCulloch
needed somewhere to put it. A bridge as historic and
monumental as this one deserved a special crossing, something more
fitting than an endless stretch of desert sand. He hired
a massive crew to carve a large peninsula of Lake
(09:09):
Havasou into an island. London Bridge would stretch across this
teal colored water and be the only crossing on or
off the island. As for the bridge itself, workers meticulously
labeled hundreds of granite bricks. They cataloged the bricks which
came from each arch span, each row, each position, and
then came disassembly. Ten thousand tons of granite stones were
(09:31):
packed into crates and sailed across the Atlantic, through the
Panama Canal and up to Long Beach, California. And from
there the crates were loaded onto enormous trucks and driven
through the California desert to Lake Havasou. Would the bridge
still be too weak to handle traffic, you might ask,
Bakala thought the same thing. He had construction crews build
a new frame made of reinforced concrete to ensure it
(09:53):
would be safe to drive on, and only then could
the bridge be reconstructed and all those granite bricks placed
exactly where they belonged. In total, the disassembly, transportation, and
reconstruction took three whole years and cost McCulloch another seven
million dollars, and in the end it worked. Buyers flocked
to Lake Havasu for the grand opening of Arizona's London Bridge.
(10:17):
London's own Lord Mayor came to town for the event,
and today Lakeavasou City is a bustling town with a
major tourism industry and fifty thousand happy residents. Looking back,
McCulloch's story encourages all of us to take that leap
of faith, however big it might be, because you never
know you may land on just the right bridge. I
(10:42):
hope you enjoyed today's guided tour through the Cabinet of Curiosities.
This show was created by me Aaron Manke in partnership
with iHeart Podcasts, researched and written by the Grim and
Mild team and produced by Jesse Funk. Learn more about
the show and the people who make it over at
Grimandmild dot com slash Curiosities. You'll also find a link
(11:02):
to the official Cabinet of Curiosity's hardcover book, available in
bookstores and online, as well as ebook and audiobook. And
if you're looking for an ad free option, consider joining
our Patreon. It's all the same stories, but without the
interruption for a small monthly fee. Learn more and sign
up over at patreon dot com slash Grimandmild, and until
(11:23):
next time, stay curious.
Welcome to Aaron Manke's Cabinet of Curiosities, a production of
iHeartRadio and Grimm and Mild. Our world is full of
the unexplainable, and if history is an open book, all
of these amazing tales are right there on display, just
waiting for us to explore. Welcome to the Cabinet of Curiosities.
(00:36):
Legends abound in South Carolina's Low Country, yet one eclipses
them all. A larger than life figure whose mastery of
the region's tangled swamps and marshes terrified the British during
the Revolutionary War. A man who could reportedly summon battalions
of soldiers within the forest and then disappear into the darkness.
(00:56):
It was rumored that he blew up the Georgetown Artillery
single match, and if you take a ghost tour of
the city today, you'll hear stories of his spirit guiding
lost travelers through the swamp. There is some measure of
truth to the stories of this terrible figure. His name
was Francis Marion, and his actions during the War for
America's Independence earned him the nickname the swamp Fox. Marion
(01:19):
was born in January of seventeen thirty two near what
is now Berkeley County, thirty miles inland from the city
of Charleston. He grew up outdoors, becoming an avid fisherman
and hunter, and because of this he gained an intimate
knowledge of the swamps and forests along the Cooper and
Edistone rivers and was an expert in navigating them. He
further expanded his skills when he served as a militia
(01:41):
lieutenant in the French and Indian War, where his familiarity
with the frontier proved valuable as a scout and as
a commander of irregular detachments that relied on ambush, raid
movement and intimate use of terrain. In seventeen eighty, Charleston
became a major focus of British strategy, which aimed to
seize the city and use it as a stronghold in
(02:03):
the fight against revolutionary forces. It was at the time
the largest port in the Southern Colonies, and it helped
to supply forces throughout the Southeast. By capturing Charleston, the
British could effectively cut off support to much of the
continental army. On January twenty ninth, approximately two thousand British
troops landed in and around Charleston Harbor. By February two,
(02:26):
they had captured Fort Moultrie and turning its artillery against
the city. Within the week, they'd begun a steady barrage
against Charleston's defenses, while British troops began slowly circling the
city on land, digging trenches to lay siege to the town.
On March twenty ninth, they succeeded in breaking the opposing
army at the Battle of Monk's Corner, forcing the Continental
(02:48):
Army's retreat. Then on May twelfth, the siege ended when
Continental General Benjamin Lincoln signed articles of capitulation as the
British took control of the port city. Approximately six hundred
were dead at another thirty five hundred had been taken prisoner.
It was a decisive victory, and the Redcoats now had
a base of operations to spread out across the South,
(03:09):
but Charleston would not prove easy to hold. After Charleston fell,
Marion began a gorilla campaign to assist the army in
reclaiming the city. He worked closely with the militia of
Colonel Thomas Sumter to establish camps in nearby forests and
swamps surrounding the Santee River that would be hidden from
British forces, and from there he used the dense foliage
(03:31):
and the shallow waters to conceal himself and his troops
when spying on enemy supply routes, ambushing ammunition convoys and
destroying what they could not carry. The largest of these
ambushes took place at Briar Creek when his men captured
a British supply depot and destroyed a powder magazine, forcing
the British military to divert troops away from the city,
(03:52):
and so he nipped away at those laying siege, occasionally
raiding food stores and destroying artillery, and then disappearing back
into the swamp. And Marian used psychological tactics as well.
Over the years, he cultivated a network of support in
the communities north of the city, using them to help
spread word of a phantom army hiding within the swamps,
(04:14):
setting fires on hilltops and screaming in the middle of
the night, convincing the British Army that they were being
stalked by ghosts. When the British Army finally managed to
strike back, the results of Marion's efforts were loud and clear.
The British supply lines had been so thoroughly depleted that
their soldiers arrived under fed and under supplied, which helped
Continental forces land a decisive victory in January of seventeen
(04:39):
eighty one. The defeats left the British forces diminished, and
further decisive winds, aided by Marian's continuing raids, slowly made
holding the city of Charleston impossible. The British were on
the defensive in the South now as well as in
the north, and their forces finally evacuated the city on
December eleventh of seventeen eighty two. Francis Marian's relentless hidden
(05:01):
run tactics turned the landscape of the Low Country into
a weapon of its own, forcing the British to fight
a war they could not win against foes they couldn't track.
By starving their supply trains, scattering their troops, and adding
a bit of folklore, Marian helped turn a hopeless siege
into a series of setbacks, ultimately leading to the liberation
(05:22):
of Charleston. His legacy endures not only in the folklore
that still haunts ghost tour guides and riverbanks, but in
the very notion that a small mobile force, armed with
intimate knowledge of its terrain can often tip the balance
of a great war. Robert was a shrewd business man.
(05:53):
He saw opportunities where a few others did. He made
his fortune selling chainsaws of all things printed with his
name on them in big, bold letters. He invested in oil,
created steam powered vehicles. He built airplanes, and created, at
the time the world's tallest fountain. And with such impressive accomplishments,
it's easy to see why no one questioned Robert McCulloch's
(06:15):
business intuition when he set his sites on a barren
twenty six miles of Arizona Desert in nineteen fifty eight.
The land had previously been used as an Army Air
Corps resting camp during World War Two, but nothing permanent
had ever been built there. But when Robert McCulloch looked
out at the vast desert stretching toward the Colorado River,
he didn't see a desolate landscape. He saw an opportunity.
(06:38):
He planned to build a city there, attracting families and
retirees who'd loved the southwest location. The hazy Orange sunsets
and the calm flowing waters of the Colorado River, and
he tested it for himself too. The first thing he
built in his new town was a fishing cabin situated
on the Lake Havasu basin. McCullough told people at the
time the fish were eager to buy, which seemed like
(07:00):
a good omen to him. Unfortunately, the buyers weren't willing
to bite. McCulloch's land, which he thought would sell fast,
didn't appeal to many people at all. Firstly, there was
the fact that it was so remote, situated in the
middle of the desert, with the nearest city almost a
four hour drive away. Even the closest small town was
miles and miles away from it. The climate was hot
(07:22):
and dry, which meant the land couldn't be used for
farming or livestock, and since Lake Havasu City hadn't even
been built yet, there was nothing to attract visitors. McCulloch
refused to give up. There must be a way to
encourage people to buy property and move to the area.
He consulted with his real estate agent, a man named
Robert Plumer, and to his surprise, Plumer said that he
(07:44):
was sure he had a solution, although it was a
pretty unusual one. Now from here, I'm going to take
a sharp left turn, so please try not to get whiplash.
Have you heard the nursery rhyme London Bridge is falling down?
Of course you have. But what you may not know
is that in nineteen six twenty seven it actually was
falling down, which honestly shouldn't be a surprise. The bridge
(08:05):
was a relic of the past, after all, having been
built in eighteen thirty one, and as London expanded around
it and traffic demands increased, the bridge was becoming dangerously
weak and desperately in need of being replaced. That's when
one of the city councilors came up with a novel idea.
In order to recoup some of the money the city
would lose building a new one, he suggested London auction
(08:26):
off their famous bridge to the highest bidder, and the
real estate agent Plumer Well he thought that McCulloch should
buy it. It would attract more land buyers, give people
a reason to visit Lake Havasu City, and add to
McCulloch's impressive legacy, and unsurprisingly he went for it. In
April of nineteen sixty eight, Robert McCulloch became the proud
(08:47):
new owner of London Bridge for just shy of two
point five million dollars. And then came the next challenge,
moving the bridge from London to Arizona. To begin, McCulloch
needed somewhere to put it. A bridge as historic and
monumental as this one deserved a special crossing, something more
fitting than an endless stretch of desert sand. He hired
a massive crew to carve a large peninsula of Lake
(09:09):
Havasou into an island. London Bridge would stretch across this
teal colored water and be the only crossing on or
off the island. As for the bridge itself, workers meticulously
labeled hundreds of granite bricks. They cataloged the bricks which
came from each arch span, each row, each position, and
then came disassembly. Ten thousand tons of granite stones were
(09:31):
packed into crates and sailed across the Atlantic, through the
Panama Canal and up to Long Beach, California. And from
there the crates were loaded onto enormous trucks and driven
through the California desert to Lake Havasou. Would the bridge
still be too weak to handle traffic, you might ask,
Bakala thought the same thing. He had construction crews build
a new frame made of reinforced concrete to ensure it
(09:53):
would be safe to drive on, and only then could
the bridge be reconstructed and all those granite bricks placed
exactly where they belonged. In total, the disassembly, transportation, and
reconstruction took three whole years and cost McCulloch another seven
million dollars, and in the end it worked. Buyers flocked
to Lake Havasu for the grand opening of Arizona's London Bridge.
(10:17):
London's own Lord Mayor came to town for the event,
and today Lakeavasou City is a bustling town with a
major tourism industry and fifty thousand happy residents. Looking back,
McCulloch's story encourages all of us to take that leap
of faith, however big it might be, because you never
know you may land on just the right bridge. I
(10:42):
hope you enjoyed today's guided tour through the Cabinet of Curiosities.
This show was created by me Aaron Manke in partnership
with iHeart Podcasts, researched and written by the Grim and
Mild team and produced by Jesse Funk. Learn more about
the show and the people who make it over at
Grimandmild dot com slash Curiosities. You'll also find a link
(11:02):
to the official Cabinet of Curiosity's hardcover book, available in
bookstores and online, as well as ebook and audiobook. And
if you're looking for an ad free option, consider joining
our Patreon. It's all the same stories, but without the
interruption for a small monthly fee. Learn more and sign
up over at patreon dot com slash Grimandmild, and until
(11:23):
next time, stay curious.
Aaron Mahnke's Cabinet of Curiosities News
Host
Aaron Mahnke
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