August 13, 2024 • 36 mins
Simeon Ellerton spent years building a house out of stones he found and carried home, one by one. Rejected by his one true love, Edward Leeskalnin spent decades erecting a bizarre monument for her, built of giant coral stones in Florida. But what exactly motivated these guys? How did they stick with their strange obsessions, and what mysteries surround them in the modern day? Tune in to learn more.
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
Fellow ridiculous historians, we returned to you with a classic episode.
This is a bit of a listical for us. Let's
get into it. Get Do you ever have ideas for
a weird invention?
Speaker 2 (00:11):
You know, I think I maybe mentioned on the podcast before.
They used to have a program that was sponsored by
the government to the US government called Invent America. And
when I was a kid, I participated in that a
couple of times, and I invented something called the bright
Night toilet light, which was literally just a very simple
circuit with a button wired onder the bottom of a
traditional toilet seat that whatever you drop the toilet seed down,
(00:34):
it would click on so that you wouldn't fall in
the toilet. I believe I received an honorable mention, but no,
that was the end of Those are the ends of
my inventing days. Every time I call it something, I'm
pretty sure it's already a thing.
Speaker 1 (00:45):
No worries, man, I accidentally reinvented air conditioning as a kid.
Speaker 2 (00:50):
I did once reinvent the wheel. I've done that many times. Actually, yeah, yeah.
Speaker 1 (00:54):
It's just it's a smart invention. We're talking about some
odd story, some classic ridiculous history here in particular the
story of Simeon Ellerton and Edward Lee Scalnan. Oh, can't
wait for you to hear it. It's just talk about
(01:15):
I'm still on the fence about this one, because there's
a great argument for committing to the bit, but then
there's also an argument of, hey, maybe don't make your
life about one thing.
Speaker 2 (01:27):
Let's roll the audio.
Speaker 1 (01:32):
Ridiculous History is a production of iHeartRadio. Let's begin today's
(02:01):
episode with the busting of a popular myth. You have
probably often heard that the proper amount of walking average
person should do a day works out to ten thousand steps.
Speaker 2 (02:16):
Oh that's true. That's what your little fitness tracker is
supposed to say at the end of the day.
Speaker 1 (02:19):
Right right. And that's a lot of corporate initiatives saying,
let's all walk ten thousand steps. You know, that's good
for you. But there's not a lot of really compelling
science that nails exactly ten thousand steps.
Speaker 2 (02:32):
Gotcha. It is a digestible number, though, is it not?
Speaker 1 (02:36):
And it is it is. It's a nice, easy, round
number that sounds big and ambitious but achievable. And we're
bringing that up just to set up a fantastic segue
into a story about walking and into a story about ambition,
several stories.
Speaker 2 (02:56):
In fact, who are you?
Speaker 1 (02:57):
Oh in this iteration they call them in this one?
Speaker 2 (03:00):
Okay, yeah, there are alternate versions. I mean, you know
you contain multitudes.
Speaker 1 (03:05):
Hey, right, If I contradict myself very well, then I
contradict myself. But enough about me, what about you?
Speaker 2 (03:11):
I don't want to talk about me, But who are you?
I'm nol This is ridiculous history, and we have clearly
run out of ideas, which is fine, which is fine,
happens to the best of us. But we're gonna do
our damnst with this one talking about a dude, an
English guy who walked a lot and had ambitions, and
then we're gonna follow that up with another story about
another guy with ambitions, and then I think we'll wrap
(03:32):
up with some little nuggets about other weird people that
did weird stuff. I you know, I respectfully disagree. I
don't think we've run out of ideas. I think we're
definitely going weird with this. I like it. Yes, cool,
It's gonna be a fun one. It's gonna be a
grab bag type episode, and we're gonna wrap it up
with some surprises.
Speaker 1 (03:51):
Yeah, yeah, we have something special for you at the end.
What is it? You might ask?
Speaker 2 (03:56):
Stay tuned.
Speaker 1 (03:58):
So first things first, we like to introduce you to
a fellow named Simeon Ellerton. This guy is British and
British listeners you may already recognize his name because he's
often referenced when someone talks about the notable British eccentricity.
Speaker 2 (04:18):
Speaking of British listeners over on our Facebook page at
Ridiculous History, I got a real nice dang or we did,
I guess for our Guy Fowk episode where a listener
said that he cringed his way through the episode because
we pronounced the guy who was in charge of the
gunpowder plot, who we pronounced as Catsby, It's apparently Katsby
(04:40):
And he said that just made him shrivel in horror.
So hopefully we don't do that again. I'm sure I
don't think there's any other way to pronounce Simeon Simon.
Maybe what if it's pronounced Simon and we don't know
the die is cast exactly, you know what, he's got
a double down. We just got a roll with it.
So Simeon Ellerton was He's often described in a coup
ways in different accounts, one of which is a known
(05:04):
a noted pedestrian.
Speaker 1 (05:06):
That is my favorite.
Speaker 2 (05:06):
I love that. I wish I was known as a
noted pedestrian.
Speaker 1 (05:10):
Or a fitness enthusiast.
Speaker 2 (05:12):
Fitness enthusiast, you know, the term eccentric gets thrown around
quite a lot. But let's just give you the broad Strokes.
Who was sime and Ellerton.
Speaker 1 (05:21):
He was employed by the gentry of his neighborhood.
Speaker 2 (05:26):
Just the general gentry, to execute this is a quotation,
to execute commissions in the South. We were sort of
an assassin just of commissions. Oh I see, okay, which
he executed with fidelity and diligence. Not that we're going
to be vain about this, but we want you to
know that's a quote, because neither of us would use
(05:47):
execute or another version of it twice in the same
CDs diligence. Where is that?
Speaker 3 (05:53):
No?
Speaker 2 (05:53):
So I guess what that means in normal human speak
is that he he was kind of a courier, and
that was directly tied to his fondness of the walk.
Speaker 1 (06:05):
Right, So it wasn't just that he enjoyed a stroll,
which a lot of people do. He liked to walk
incredibly long distances, and when he was on these meandering journeys,
he picked up a weird habit which literally involved picking
things up. Yep, he collected stones from across England and
(06:27):
then he would just bring them back with him.
Speaker 2 (06:30):
I'm assuming in some sort of pile that he maintained.
Speaker 1 (06:34):
Yeah, he would carry them though on his head. Oh yeah,
yeah right, But at first he just yeah, started piling
stones on his land.
Speaker 2 (06:42):
He was so known as being a enthusiastic walker. That's
probably what led him to be employed by the gentry
in the first place. They were like, well, simon'll go,
he's already walking from Surrey to god Yorkshire. English listeners,
you can also school us on ridiculous history Facebook about
(07:04):
the geography of England. But hey, spoiler alert, I don't
know the geography of my country either, so you're not
going to hurt my feelings. Oh man, oh man, I'm
really bad at geography. But no, he would go like
fifty miles on foot round trip, yeah.
Speaker 1 (07:19):
Or eighty kilometers for our friends across the pond.
Speaker 2 (07:22):
Oh while carrying these stones upon his head.
Speaker 1 (07:26):
Yeah yeah, which feels like a weird way to carry
stone surely not balancing though, you know, one would think
it depends on the size of the stone. Yeah, but
given the distance, you would imagine he would have to
hold it with both hands or have a contraption that
he used to trap it to us.
Speaker 2 (07:44):
He wasn't a noted contraptionist.
Speaker 1 (07:45):
Though, No, he was not a contraptionaire. You think that
would have figured into his CV, right, that's something you
would mention. I think in this time period, a contraption
would also be notable. So he's got this pie ella stones,
and we've been doing this for years. He's been doing
this for years and years and years, and eventually he
(08:06):
looks around at the pile and he thinks I should
do something. I should do something other than just walking
and throwing these into a pile.
Speaker 2 (08:15):
Well, that is one interpretation, Ben. The other would be
maybe he knew all along what he was going to
do with it. I don't know what do you think?
The record is unclear?
Speaker 1 (08:24):
The record is unclear. I would like to imagine that
he had a plan, you know, WoT wouldn't you like
to imagine that that's what I'm doing? Okay? Otherwise it
seems indicative of something beyond eccentricity.
Speaker 2 (08:40):
Exactly exactly that plan in question is was that he
was going to use these stones to build himself a
little stone cottage that he would also design himself.
Speaker 1 (08:55):
And this was a brilliant plan financially speaking, because sure
he didn't have to pay for someone else to haul
the stones. He didn't have to pay for the stones himself.
He was just finding them, but you know, in the
hills by the road and doing all the transit on
his own power. This, according to folks like Andy Staffer,
(09:17):
the owner of Stauffer and Son's Construction, puts him ahead
of his time by a matter of centuries.
Speaker 2 (09:24):
Yeah, very much so. I mean, the idea of using
reclaimed material to build a home today is very much
in fashion. Staffer says in an interview with How Stuff
Works that using material it already exists on your land
can be a huge advantage. And then the materials are
free and you don't need to ship them to your jobs,
Like can you imagine shipping masonry? You know that's that's expensive,
(09:48):
very very expensive. Yeah, and he says, or your job site.
And he says the challenge is that builders must ensure
the items found on a property can be used for
structural materials. Here's the thing too, though, Ben, This was
in you know, the seven teen hundreds, and I can't
imagine that there were exactly building codes, right, And did
(10:08):
he own the land? That's the thing, you guys. There's
a lot of conjecture here because there's precious little about
this this fellow. One of the most prominent sources of
the very few sources about him at all was a
publication called the Yorkshire County Magazine, and it describes Simeon
by way of his death in seventeen ninety nine. He's
(10:32):
not dead to us yet for the purposes of this story,
but I just want to read this to you for
the sake of a little context. He died at Craike
criikee Craig. What do you think, Ben, cri i k
e wright in let us know, go Craik Craig. Yeah,
I'm gonna do Craig in the County of Durham. Now
that one at the advanced age of one hundred and
(10:52):
four years old. No small task in those days, right Ben?
Speaker 1 (10:57):
So now, yeah, no small task. And now we see
the advantage of his continual exercise that had to play
some sort of role absolutely.
Speaker 2 (11:08):
And my whole question here is like what was his lineage?
Where did he live before he built himself this stone hut?
Speaker 1 (11:15):
Yeah? What did it look like? Right? Did people come
visit him?
Speaker 2 (11:19):
Because he sounds just sort of like a like a
village odd ball who people would throw a couple of
shillings to carry their letters because he was already going or.
Speaker 1 (11:29):
Really smart, determined guy with like Andy Dufrain and Shaushing
redemption level dedication to.
Speaker 2 (11:39):
A task and forethought right, very forward thinking. It goes
on to say, yeah, he was. So he died of
the advanced age of one hundred and four, making him
a centenarian.
Speaker 1 (11:47):
That happen, Yeah, centenarian over one hundred years old or
just one hundred, but in his case one hundred and four.
Speaker 2 (11:54):
Got it. This obituary really goes on to say he
was a noted pedestrian, Yes, I love that one. That
and was often employed by gentlemen in the neighborhood on
commissions to London and other places, which he always executed
on foot. And as you said before, Ben with fidelity
and diligence, so you know, he's a dependable guy and
he's honest, very honest. He lived in a neat stone
(12:15):
cottage of his own building. And what was remarkable he
had literally carried it on his own head.
Speaker 1 (12:22):
And these would be for journeys of over fifty miles,
and that would not be an infrequent amount of mileage
for him. The story continues, so that account in the
Yorkshire County Magazine is expanded upon in the Historical Register
of Remarkable Events.
Speaker 2 (12:41):
That's true, And just a quick note, the headline for
Simeon's little entry in the Yorkshire magazine was part of
a list of Yorkshire centenarians.
Speaker 1 (12:50):
Yes, yeah, yeah, and there's a surprising number there. I
always feel like it's surprising when there's more than one.
Speaker 2 (12:56):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (12:57):
So what happens after he builds this cottage? He continues
carrying stones, doesn't he?
Speaker 2 (13:05):
He does? And not only that, even leading up to
building the cottage, he was looking for a particular type
of stone. He wanted them to be just so. And
I haven't seen anything listed as to what exactly the
qualities were, but I would imagine they had to be
pretty smooth, sure, and then they needed to be able
to be stitched together or stacked in a way that
would you know, make them sturdy.
Speaker 1 (13:25):
Sure load bearing.
Speaker 2 (13:26):
Yeah, not clear if he was using masonry or if
he was like, you know, putting them together with concrete
or anything, or if he was literally just stacking them.
I don't know, what do you think man.
Speaker 1 (13:35):
Going for an esthetic? He may have just collected rocks
that he enjoyed as well as rocks that he found
suitable for construction. But yes, he would rarely come home
without carrying stones, and he became known for this throughout
the county. And let's go back to Andy Staufer for
(13:57):
a moment here, because he has an anecdote about a
house he was working on that was built in nineteen
thirteen and had burned down and needed rebuilding. And this
gives us a little bit of a look at the
appropriate rock for this kind of foundation.
Speaker 2 (14:13):
Yeah, it's true. He said the foundation of this house
was made of river rocks that had been taken from
the local river. But today you can't use rocks like
that because of things like building codes. Right, he does
say that you could use these natural, beautiful looking rocks
to as decorative pieces. But Simeon clearly was you know,
he wanted to build this on the cheap, as in
(14:35):
on the no money. You know, his whole goal. I'm
hoping the long term goal was to build his house
out of these stones. And then so Stoffer goes on
to add quote, if we had wanted to build a
natural stone wall but didn't have access to this collection
of rock already on the property, it would have caused
a considerable amount to import them. So in this case,
having found materials is a great benefit for both the
(14:57):
cost efficiency and beauty perspective, because again he had you know,
no one, no one has a lifetime to carry rocks
for a building job, but I mean seemed like he
had all the time in the world. He's a very
zen character to me. I really I kind of dig
his whole vibe.
Speaker 1 (15:12):
It's interesting to watch your interpretation of him evolve even
in the course of this episode. And we don't have
a ton of information about Ellerton as we as we
said at the top, but we do know that he
kept going in some way in a symbolic way. So
after he has his home built, he's not carrying these heavy,
(15:34):
load bearing, potentially load bearing rocks on his head, but
he's still walking around with a very interesting habit.
Speaker 2 (15:42):
Yeah, he had a bag of rocks, right, And to me,
this is sort of the clue I was looking for
that he had a plan. He was that Andy Dufrain
level of like forward thinking. You know, there was a
lot going on this. I'm like, you're right. My perspective
on this guy really is evolving. And the more we
talk about him, I like him very very much.
Speaker 1 (16:01):
And it's reported that he still felt as though the
extra weight was a requirement for him to enjoy walking.
And maybe we end this part of weird people who
built weird things. Maybe we end it with one of
our favorite quotes that we found from Ellerton.
Speaker 2 (16:19):
Yeah. I mean, you know, he was a known dude
around town and people would stop him. Seems like he
was probably pretty friendly because whenever someone would inquire a
reason for carrying these rocks or having a weight upon
his head, he would always reply, tis to keep on
my hat. It's so beautiful, man.
Speaker 1 (16:41):
I think this guy seems like he'd be fun to
hang out.
Speaker 2 (16:44):
He really does, he really really does. I want to
build a religion around this man. Ah.
Speaker 1 (16:51):
I'm glad that we're verging into spirituality here or the
more esoteric fields, because we found another person that we
wanted to explore, another weird guy or visionary who built
a weird thing, or should we say a visionary thing.
The choice, friends and neighbors is up to you. We
(17:13):
would like to introduce you to something called Coral Castle,
built by a man named Edward Leed Skeldon.
Speaker 2 (17:22):
That's a doozy of a last name there.
Speaker 1 (17:23):
He's Latvian. So there's a small town in Florida. It's
called Homestead, And in Homestead is one of the most
bizarre structures in Florida. It's a ten acre stone park
called Coral Castle. By himself, Edward built this thing, and
(17:48):
he made it using around two hundred and forty three
tons of gigantic coral blocks.
Speaker 2 (17:55):
Okay, so he's upping the anne here a little bit.
And there's about one hundred years later than our boys said,
and some technology does come into play for this man's story.
But set the scene for us, Ben.
Speaker 1 (18:06):
Sure, sure, So let's lead up to the construction of
the castle. You see when he was around twenty six.
Edward was born in January of eighteen eighty seven in Latvia.
We don't know too much about his childhood other than
he wasn't super well off, He wasn't part of the
(18:28):
Latvia and elite, and he only had a formal education
going up to about fourth grade, but he was a
real bookworm. And when he was around twenty six, he
was engaged to marry a lady named Agnes Scuffs. She
was about ten years younger than Edward, and when she
broke the engagement, he said, blast it all and he
(18:52):
decided that he was going to move to the United States.
So he immigrated to North America. Originally he arrived in
New York City and then he originally after that traveled
to Oregon, but he caught tuberculosis and this inspired him
(19:12):
to move to Florida for the climate, right yeah, yeah,
for the climate. Then he purchased an acre of land,
and according to newspaper reports of the time, he was
going to construct.
Speaker 2 (19:26):
A home and an acre that was affordable. He didn't
have to be a swell to afford an acre, right, yeah, yeah, exactly.
Everyone had an opportunity. It was a land of opportunity
in those days. Now, you know, buy me an acre
in in Atlanta. I'll show you a square that costs
a million dollars.
Speaker 1 (19:43):
Oh yeah, too true, and that might be a deal.
So like our earlier example with Ellerton, there's not a
whole lot known about this guy's early life, but there's
a lot of conjecture. What we do know is that
instead of building a normal house quote unquote normal house,
(20:04):
he spent over twenty years, almost the next three decades
expanding this strange, bizarre stone garden. And he worked in
secret and by himself, and even today some people will
(20:26):
argue that he had some sort of mysterious insight into construction.
Speaker 2 (20:32):
Well, he was carrying a torch for Agnes, right this
whole time. This was all an act of sadness kind
of right, or it was like meant to be a
monument to her in some way, even though she totally
screwed him over.
Speaker 1 (20:44):
Yeah, yeah, almost like a dirge or a breakup love
song in stone form. And you can see the sheer
scale of these things today. It's also strange that Ed
you want to just call him Ed for this, Yeah, Eddie, Yeah, Eddie,
there we go. Eddie was five feet tall and only
(21:06):
around one hundred pounds fell. Yeah, and no one saw
him work, like, literally, no one ever saw how he
constructed it. And when we say a rock garden, we're
not just talking about several large slabs of coral stuck,
(21:26):
you know, thirty feet apart from each other or something.
He was carving this. He even made furniture, these oversized beds,
rocking chairs, fountains, tables, sundials, a throne. So I guess
he made the I guess he made like a chair
and then said, you know what this outa asked a
(21:47):
rock or look regal.
Speaker 2 (21:49):
Now do we talk about the fact that he started
this in one location and moved it about ten miles.
Speaker 1 (21:54):
We should mention that. Yeah, because he had to expand it,
because he started with that one acre and he ended
up with ten He needed more room.
Speaker 2 (22:00):
Where's his money coming from, Ben, Where's his money coming from?
Speaker 1 (22:03):
Well, he did make some pamphlets, So what you're saying
is questionable. Questionable, No questionable. We know that he did
publish pamphlets on a number of subjects that people had
paid for, including pamphlets on his beliefs about magnetism. He
(22:25):
was another eccentric and because of these pamphlets he published
where he remarked on his perception of the nature of
you know, forces in the universe, A lot of people
had thought that he had some well they would call
it an ancient insight into gravity or magnetism. It did
(22:46):
not help that in one response, when people asked him
how he built Coral Castle, all he said was that
he had quote learned the secrets of the pyramids? Cool vague.
Speaker 2 (23:03):
Yeah, So does this.
Speaker 1 (23:06):
Mean that he had you know, for some of the
more conspiracy minded folks, would this mean that he had
access to some ancient wisdom? I mean maybe, according to
writers like Benjamin Radford, the secret of the pyramid may
be a real thing, largely forgotten construction techniques. But instead
of like strange electromagnetic forces or anti gravity or any
(23:29):
of that jazz, maybe he just built police tripods and
winches to exert leverage and provide mechanical advantage.
Speaker 2 (23:37):
Yeah, and this is still there, right, Yeah, this is
still there.
Speaker 1 (23:40):
You can go see it. The average weight of the
stones about fourteen tons each. He also made a tower
twenty two ton obelisk. And he was a master of
balancing things. So there's like a door that opens and
stuff all made of coral, all fragnus scruffs old.
Speaker 2 (23:56):
Scruffy, and so you know. He passed away in I
think fifty one, and his nephew, who had been living
in Michigan at the time, inherited the castle. And this
is a kind of a creepy part. When the ownership
was being was switching hands. After the death, they found
a box of old Eddi's stuff, personal stuff, and it
(24:16):
had a list of instructions that led to the discovery
of his life savings, which was thirty five one hundred
dollars bills inflation.
Speaker 1 (24:26):
That's been all right here we are thirty five one
hundred dollars in nineteen fifty three, is casey, could we
have a drome role please? Thirty two seven hundred and
sixty one dollars and ninety seven cents.
Speaker 2 (24:46):
Okay, so not a rich man, but very much a
kindred spirit to Simeon Ellerton, big time forward thinking, ingenuitous?
Is that is that a word?
Speaker 1 (24:58):
I mean? English is a living language.
Speaker 2 (25:00):
So I'm gonna, I'm going I'm making it a word,
go coin it right now like it in But said,
don't you think they're both like? I mean? It is
kind of it's a bummer that Ed's story is a
little bit more sad. Although we don't know what happened
to Sammy and Allerton. We don't know why he was
carrying those stones. He could have been carrying them as
some kind of ritual for someone that he had lost
as well.
Speaker 1 (25:20):
The legend that I just made up is that you
can still find him out there in the hills walking today.
Speaker 2 (25:27):
A shiver just went up my spine, Ben when you
said that.
Speaker 1 (25:30):
So so, yes, we do not know what happened to
Simey and Ellerton. We do know a little bit more
about Edward passing away, but we can end on a
positive note with his story by saying that he did
not just construct something grandiose, ambitious, and weird. He constructed
(25:51):
it to a high degree of competency. During Hurricane Andrew
in nineteen ninety two, not one of these stones shifted.
The eight foot wall that rings the property is still
at the same height. And today people will still tell you,
with varying degrees of credibility, what they think his secret
(26:13):
method actually was. And he himself claimed to harness a
perpetual power to move the stones.
Speaker 2 (26:25):
He certainly possessed a perpetual power to move me, my friend.
And you know another connection between Simeon and Edward. I
wish we knew a little bit more about Simon about
how long it took him to collect all those stones.
We do know, though, however, about Edward that it took
him from nineteen twenty three to nineteen fifty one to
(26:45):
knock out that that coral castle.
Speaker 1 (26:49):
And you know, if you ever find yourself in the area,
do pay it a visit. You know, it's a part
of obscure history that a lot of people miss. But
he was not the only person who built a weird thing.
I want to give a shout out to just a
couple of people.
Speaker 2 (27:07):
Please we promise that at the top of the show,
we can't let people down.
Speaker 1 (27:10):
Oh right, well, shout out to rich Art. That's Richard
with a T instead of a D. Rich Art. Soa
Sowa who built the very inspiring Spiral Island and its replacement,
joy Z Island j O y x ee. These are
(27:31):
built out of sustainable materials. He built the island by himself.
The first one was sixty six feet in diameter, made
out of one hundred thousand bottles, and then expanded as
he planted mangroves growing on the island.
Speaker 2 (27:46):
It's got a beach house. Mangrove is that like a mango.
Speaker 1 (27:51):
It's a it's a type of small tree that grows
in coastal waters or you know, brackish semi salty waters
got it, so he continued growing this uh, partially as
an artistic statement and partially is an aim toward a
you know, an example of how we could live more sustainably.
(28:16):
There's another man named Estavao Silva do Contao who built
on his own a housemaid of found materials. You can
see in the walls, yeah, cups, rocks, yeah, sculpture and.
Speaker 2 (28:32):
Reminds me of Sea Rock City.
Speaker 1 (28:35):
Oh that's a good call too.
Speaker 2 (28:36):
That's so cool. I wish I wish this was an
audio podcast. And this is just this is just probably
titillating you in a negative way. But look, what's what's
how do you? How do you find this? Ben? Uh?
Speaker 1 (28:47):
You can you can find this. There's a great thing
you can see on Reuters called Brazil's homegrown Goudie by
a Polo Whittaker because this is located in uh Valla
in Salpaulo, and it drew comparisons to a famous Catalan
architect named Antony Galdi. And the guy who built it
(29:10):
had never heard of this architect, he had never seen
any photos of that work. He had just built this
home for himself and then later started a family in
it and you know, personally, I find these stories incredibly
inspiring and we'd like to hear some more stories from you.
Is there anybody in your neck of the global woods
who has built a strange, fascinating structure edifice under their
(29:35):
own power? And you know what, you know what, let's
open it up a little. I think let's maybe not
say just a single person, but maybe like a family.
Absolutely there's some siblings or something.
Speaker 2 (29:47):
Yeah, And speaking of broadening the net, I think it's
time for our first ever attempt at a new segment
we'd like to call extra Credit.
Speaker 1 (29:59):
Yes, that's right, Friends and neighbors. Extra Credit, the segment
where we are expanding the typical show that we might
normally do, you know. And we've been talking back and
forth about this one, and we're excited because what better
way to kick it off than with a very very
special guest.
Speaker 2 (30:19):
Yes, we have a child, a human child here in
the podcast studio, smartest one in the room. She is
the smartest one in the room, and she's actually we're related.
Nepotism going on here. This is Ladies and Gentlemen, Eden Brown, Oho,
you just waved. We don't really know what this segment
(30:42):
is all about. We're just gonna play it by ear
are you Are you into it? Okay, We're gonna ask
you some questions. Okay, well you got this.
Speaker 1 (30:50):
Okay, you've got this. Eden, So so thank you so
much for coming on the show. And we're really we're
really thrilled to have you. And you heard earlier we
were talking about these people who built these crazy things
out of stone by themselves. If you were going to
build something like that, what what? What kind of thing
(31:11):
would you build?
Speaker 4 (31:12):
I would build the sculpture of a unicorn?
Speaker 1 (31:16):
Oh?
Speaker 3 (31:17):
Yeah?
Speaker 1 (31:17):
How big would it be?
Speaker 3 (31:19):
Jude?
Speaker 2 (31:20):
Can you give us some specific measurements? Could you sketch
it out for us? Hang on, ladies and gentlemen, she's sketching.
Speaker 1 (31:28):
We're handy, miss Brown, some pen and papery. Noel, could
you narrate?
Speaker 2 (31:32):
Okay, she's drawing a line here, looks like that's the unicorns.
I'm thinking that's its butt. No, that's the horn. Excuse me,
excuse me? Okay, I think we get the idea. So Eden,
Why why a unicorn? And what would this mean to you?
What would you want?
Speaker 4 (31:46):
I'm obsessed with You're obsessed with unicorns?
Speaker 2 (31:50):
Really? Is that true? Do you what what is it
about unicorns that you enjoy so much?
Speaker 4 (31:58):
They're magical and they dance on rainbows?
Speaker 2 (32:03):
Do they?
Speaker 4 (32:04):
Yes?
Speaker 2 (32:05):
I did not know this, so I would you know what?
Speaker 1 (32:08):
I am inspired by that. I would definitely go see
a massive unicorn. Where would you build this unicorn?
Speaker 2 (32:17):
Hmmm?
Speaker 4 (32:18):
I would build it in my backyard.
Speaker 2 (32:23):
And would you charge admission? Because that is one thing
these two stories. Our second guy with the coral castle,
it did eventually start making a little money off of tours.
Speaker 1 (32:32):
That's true.
Speaker 2 (32:33):
You know, his heart was in the right place about
just like making it. And then once it was done,
it's like, well, you know what I mean, I did
all this work, I might as well make a little scratch.
So and Eden, I know that you upfront would be
doing it just for the pure joy of doing it.
But once it was done, how much would you charge
for people to come see this giant stone unicorn in
your backyard?
Speaker 4 (32:52):
I would cost twenty five dollars to come.
Speaker 2 (32:57):
And see it. That seems a little steep.
Speaker 1 (32:59):
Twenty five dollars. Do you get a shirt?
Speaker 4 (33:01):
Yes?
Speaker 1 (33:02):
Okay, I'm back in Okay. So I've got a question.
I'm sure all the all the listeners out there are wondering, Eating,
and that is would the unicorn have colors to it?
Would it be?
Speaker 4 (33:17):
I would paint the rocks?
Speaker 1 (33:19):
Uh huh? And yeah, fantastic for twenty five dollars.
Speaker 2 (33:24):
Yeah, I would hope you get a little color for
twenty five All right, well, okay, I guess this is
what extra credit is.
Speaker 1 (33:32):
Thank you so much, Eating for coming onto the show
and hanging out with me and your dad and our
super producer Casey.
Speaker 2 (33:40):
Spoiler alert, Eden took a sick day to day and
that's why she's here day and before she infects us
all we better get a move on. We hope that
you enjoyed the show. We hope you enjoyed our Running
Out of Ideas episode, which actually turned out to be
kind of chock full of ideas.
Speaker 1 (33:57):
I'm so weird a doubt that you call it the
running out of ideas episode.
Speaker 2 (34:00):
It's just a subtitle I'm working on.
Speaker 1 (34:03):
All right. Well, I am still a fan of weird
people building weird things.
Speaker 2 (34:08):
That's fantastic, weird people building weird things. The Running out
of Ideas episode it's a little long.
Speaker 1 (34:14):
Well, we'll workshop it and maybe our next episode of
extra credit will take us to Coral Castle itself for.
Speaker 2 (34:20):
Anywhere, Chuck E Cheese, you know the mall.
Speaker 1 (34:23):
Yeah, Dave and Busters, whatever you got the Grand Canyon.
Speaker 2 (34:27):
No, it's true. The thing about extra credit is that
it's very open ended and it's just a good way
to do something a little different at the end of
the show.
Speaker 1 (34:35):
And of course, as always, we would like to thank
our super producer, Casey Pegram. While we're recording this, and
Eden saw this earlier when she was sitting outside of
the booth, we sometimes turned to Casey and raise our
eyebrows to check to see if he's if he's giving
his look of approval, and he seems okay overall, I
(34:58):
think so too.
Speaker 2 (34:59):
Yeah, it seems like he's in a very fine chipper mood.
So definitely, big thanks to Casey, Big thanks to Alex Williams,
who composed our theme. Most importantly, big thanks to you
for tuning in and hanging out with us for another
episode of Ridiculous History. If you have any thoughts, comments, complaints,
keep the complaints, just just give us the nice stuff.
You can write to us at ridiculous at HowStuffWorks dot com.
Speaker 1 (35:20):
Oh and we do have a new complaint department. You
can write directly to our complaint department Jonathan dot Strickland
at HowStuffWorks dot com. You can find us on Instagram, Facebook, Twitter,
and various other internettings. I'm gonna just go with internetting.
Speaker 2 (35:41):
I like it the Internet.
Speaker 1 (35:42):
It's a net and of course a very special thanks
to our inaugural guest of extra credit, Eden Brown. No,
let's say we give her the last word today.
Speaker 3 (35:55):
Goodbye.
Speaker 2 (36:14):
For more podcasts from iHeartRadio, visit the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts,
or wherever you listen to your favorite shows
Fellow ridiculous historians, we returned to you with a classic episode.
This is a bit of a listical for us. Let's
get into it. Get Do you ever have ideas for
a weird invention?
Speaker 2 (00:11):
You know, I think I maybe mentioned on the podcast before.
They used to have a program that was sponsored by
the government to the US government called Invent America. And
when I was a kid, I participated in that a
couple of times, and I invented something called the bright
Night toilet light, which was literally just a very simple
circuit with a button wired onder the bottom of a
traditional toilet seat that whatever you drop the toilet seed down,
(00:34):
it would click on so that you wouldn't fall in
the toilet. I believe I received an honorable mention, but no,
that was the end of Those are the ends of
my inventing days. Every time I call it something, I'm
pretty sure it's already a thing.
Speaker 1 (00:45):
No worries, man, I accidentally reinvented air conditioning as a kid.
Speaker 2 (00:50):
I did once reinvent the wheel. I've done that many times. Actually, yeah, yeah.
Speaker 1 (00:54):
It's just it's a smart invention. We're talking about some
odd story, some classic ridiculous history here in particular the
story of Simeon Ellerton and Edward Lee Scalnan. Oh, can't
wait for you to hear it. It's just talk about
(01:15):
I'm still on the fence about this one, because there's
a great argument for committing to the bit, but then
there's also an argument of, hey, maybe don't make your
life about one thing.
Speaker 2 (01:27):
Let's roll the audio.
Speaker 1 (01:32):
Ridiculous History is a production of iHeartRadio. Let's begin today's
(02:01):
episode with the busting of a popular myth. You have
probably often heard that the proper amount of walking average
person should do a day works out to ten thousand steps.
Speaker 2 (02:16):
Oh that's true. That's what your little fitness tracker is
supposed to say at the end of the day.
Speaker 1 (02:19):
Right right. And that's a lot of corporate initiatives saying,
let's all walk ten thousand steps. You know, that's good
for you. But there's not a lot of really compelling
science that nails exactly ten thousand steps.
Speaker 2 (02:32):
Gotcha. It is a digestible number, though, is it not?
Speaker 1 (02:36):
And it is it is. It's a nice, easy, round
number that sounds big and ambitious but achievable. And we're
bringing that up just to set up a fantastic segue
into a story about walking and into a story about ambition,
several stories.
Speaker 2 (02:56):
In fact, who are you?
Speaker 1 (02:57):
Oh in this iteration they call them in this one?
Speaker 2 (03:00):
Okay, yeah, there are alternate versions. I mean, you know
you contain multitudes.
Speaker 1 (03:05):
Hey, right, If I contradict myself very well, then I
contradict myself. But enough about me, what about you?
Speaker 2 (03:11):
I don't want to talk about me, But who are you?
I'm nol This is ridiculous history, and we have clearly
run out of ideas, which is fine, which is fine,
happens to the best of us. But we're gonna do
our damnst with this one talking about a dude, an
English guy who walked a lot and had ambitions, and
then we're gonna follow that up with another story about
another guy with ambitions, and then I think we'll wrap
(03:32):
up with some little nuggets about other weird people that
did weird stuff. I you know, I respectfully disagree. I
don't think we've run out of ideas. I think we're
definitely going weird with this. I like it. Yes, cool,
It's gonna be a fun one. It's gonna be a
grab bag type episode, and we're gonna wrap it up
with some surprises.
Speaker 1 (03:51):
Yeah, yeah, we have something special for you at the end.
What is it? You might ask?
Speaker 2 (03:56):
Stay tuned.
Speaker 1 (03:58):
So first things first, we like to introduce you to
a fellow named Simeon Ellerton. This guy is British and
British listeners you may already recognize his name because he's
often referenced when someone talks about the notable British eccentricity.
Speaker 2 (04:18):
Speaking of British listeners over on our Facebook page at
Ridiculous History, I got a real nice dang or we did,
I guess for our Guy Fowk episode where a listener
said that he cringed his way through the episode because
we pronounced the guy who was in charge of the
gunpowder plot, who we pronounced as Catsby, It's apparently Katsby
(04:40):
And he said that just made him shrivel in horror.
So hopefully we don't do that again. I'm sure I
don't think there's any other way to pronounce Simeon Simon.
Maybe what if it's pronounced Simon and we don't know
the die is cast exactly, you know what, he's got
a double down. We just got a roll with it.
So Simeon Ellerton was He's often described in a coup
ways in different accounts, one of which is a known
(05:04):
a noted pedestrian.
Speaker 1 (05:06):
That is my favorite.
Speaker 2 (05:06):
I love that. I wish I was known as a
noted pedestrian.
Speaker 1 (05:10):
Or a fitness enthusiast.
Speaker 2 (05:12):
Fitness enthusiast, you know, the term eccentric gets thrown around
quite a lot. But let's just give you the broad Strokes.
Who was sime and Ellerton.
Speaker 1 (05:21):
He was employed by the gentry of his neighborhood.
Speaker 2 (05:26):
Just the general gentry, to execute this is a quotation,
to execute commissions in the South. We were sort of
an assassin just of commissions. Oh I see, okay, which
he executed with fidelity and diligence. Not that we're going
to be vain about this, but we want you to
know that's a quote, because neither of us would use
(05:47):
execute or another version of it twice in the same
CDs diligence. Where is that?
Speaker 3 (05:53):
No?
Speaker 2 (05:53):
So I guess what that means in normal human speak
is that he he was kind of a courier, and
that was directly tied to his fondness of the walk.
Speaker 1 (06:05):
Right, So it wasn't just that he enjoyed a stroll,
which a lot of people do. He liked to walk
incredibly long distances, and when he was on these meandering journeys,
he picked up a weird habit which literally involved picking
things up. Yep, he collected stones from across England and
(06:27):
then he would just bring them back with him.
Speaker 2 (06:30):
I'm assuming in some sort of pile that he maintained.
Speaker 1 (06:34):
Yeah, he would carry them though on his head. Oh yeah,
yeah right, But at first he just yeah, started piling
stones on his land.
Speaker 2 (06:42):
He was so known as being a enthusiastic walker. That's
probably what led him to be employed by the gentry
in the first place. They were like, well, simon'll go,
he's already walking from Surrey to god Yorkshire. English listeners,
you can also school us on ridiculous history Facebook about
(07:04):
the geography of England. But hey, spoiler alert, I don't
know the geography of my country either, so you're not
going to hurt my feelings. Oh man, oh man, I'm
really bad at geography. But no, he would go like
fifty miles on foot round trip, yeah.
Speaker 1 (07:19):
Or eighty kilometers for our friends across the pond.
Speaker 2 (07:22):
Oh while carrying these stones upon his head.
Speaker 1 (07:26):
Yeah yeah, which feels like a weird way to carry
stone surely not balancing though, you know, one would think
it depends on the size of the stone. Yeah, but
given the distance, you would imagine he would have to
hold it with both hands or have a contraption that
he used to trap it to us.
Speaker 2 (07:44):
He wasn't a noted contraptionist.
Speaker 1 (07:45):
Though, No, he was not a contraptionaire. You think that
would have figured into his CV, right, that's something you
would mention. I think in this time period, a contraption
would also be notable. So he's got this pie ella stones,
and we've been doing this for years. He's been doing
this for years and years and years, and eventually he
(08:06):
looks around at the pile and he thinks I should
do something. I should do something other than just walking
and throwing these into a pile.
Speaker 2 (08:15):
Well, that is one interpretation, Ben. The other would be
maybe he knew all along what he was going to
do with it. I don't know what do you think?
The record is unclear?
Speaker 1 (08:24):
The record is unclear. I would like to imagine that
he had a plan, you know, WoT wouldn't you like
to imagine that that's what I'm doing? Okay? Otherwise it
seems indicative of something beyond eccentricity.
Speaker 2 (08:40):
Exactly exactly that plan in question is was that he
was going to use these stones to build himself a
little stone cottage that he would also design himself.
Speaker 1 (08:55):
And this was a brilliant plan financially speaking, because sure
he didn't have to pay for someone else to haul
the stones. He didn't have to pay for the stones himself.
He was just finding them, but you know, in the
hills by the road and doing all the transit on
his own power. This, according to folks like Andy Staffer,
(09:17):
the owner of Stauffer and Son's Construction, puts him ahead
of his time by a matter of centuries.
Speaker 2 (09:24):
Yeah, very much so. I mean, the idea of using
reclaimed material to build a home today is very much
in fashion. Staffer says in an interview with How Stuff
Works that using material it already exists on your land
can be a huge advantage. And then the materials are
free and you don't need to ship them to your jobs,
Like can you imagine shipping masonry? You know that's that's expensive,
(09:48):
very very expensive. Yeah, and he says, or your job site.
And he says the challenge is that builders must ensure
the items found on a property can be used for
structural materials. Here's the thing too, though, Ben, This was
in you know, the seven teen hundreds, and I can't
imagine that there were exactly building codes, right, And did
(10:08):
he own the land? That's the thing, you guys. There's
a lot of conjecture here because there's precious little about
this this fellow. One of the most prominent sources of
the very few sources about him at all was a
publication called the Yorkshire County Magazine, and it describes Simeon
by way of his death in seventeen ninety nine. He's
(10:32):
not dead to us yet for the purposes of this story,
but I just want to read this to you for
the sake of a little context. He died at Craike
criikee Craig. What do you think, Ben, cri i k
e wright in let us know, go Craik Craig. Yeah,
I'm gonna do Craig in the County of Durham. Now
that one at the advanced age of one hundred and
(10:52):
four years old. No small task in those days, right Ben?
Speaker 1 (10:57):
So now, yeah, no small task. And now we see
the advantage of his continual exercise that had to play
some sort of role absolutely.
Speaker 2 (11:08):
And my whole question here is like what was his lineage?
Where did he live before he built himself this stone hut?
Speaker 1 (11:15):
Yeah? What did it look like? Right? Did people come
visit him?
Speaker 2 (11:19):
Because he sounds just sort of like a like a
village odd ball who people would throw a couple of
shillings to carry their letters because he was already going or.
Speaker 1 (11:29):
Really smart, determined guy with like Andy Dufrain and Shaushing
redemption level dedication to.
Speaker 2 (11:39):
A task and forethought right, very forward thinking. It goes
on to say, yeah, he was. So he died of
the advanced age of one hundred and four, making him
a centenarian.
Speaker 1 (11:47):
That happen, Yeah, centenarian over one hundred years old or
just one hundred, but in his case one hundred and four.
Speaker 2 (11:54):
Got it. This obituary really goes on to say he
was a noted pedestrian, Yes, I love that one. That
and was often employed by gentlemen in the neighborhood on
commissions to London and other places, which he always executed
on foot. And as you said before, Ben with fidelity
and diligence, so you know, he's a dependable guy and
he's honest, very honest. He lived in a neat stone
(12:15):
cottage of his own building. And what was remarkable he
had literally carried it on his own head.
Speaker 1 (12:22):
And these would be for journeys of over fifty miles,
and that would not be an infrequent amount of mileage
for him. The story continues, so that account in the
Yorkshire County Magazine is expanded upon in the Historical Register
of Remarkable Events.
Speaker 2 (12:41):
That's true, And just a quick note, the headline for
Simeon's little entry in the Yorkshire magazine was part of
a list of Yorkshire centenarians.
Speaker 1 (12:50):
Yes, yeah, yeah, and there's a surprising number there. I
always feel like it's surprising when there's more than one.
Speaker 2 (12:56):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (12:57):
So what happens after he builds this cottage? He continues
carrying stones, doesn't he?
Speaker 2 (13:05):
He does? And not only that, even leading up to
building the cottage, he was looking for a particular type
of stone. He wanted them to be just so. And
I haven't seen anything listed as to what exactly the
qualities were, but I would imagine they had to be
pretty smooth, sure, and then they needed to be able
to be stitched together or stacked in a way that
would you know, make them sturdy.
Speaker 1 (13:25):
Sure load bearing.
Speaker 2 (13:26):
Yeah, not clear if he was using masonry or if
he was like, you know, putting them together with concrete
or anything, or if he was literally just stacking them.
I don't know, what do you think man.
Speaker 1 (13:35):
Going for an esthetic? He may have just collected rocks
that he enjoyed as well as rocks that he found
suitable for construction. But yes, he would rarely come home
without carrying stones, and he became known for this throughout
the county. And let's go back to Andy Staufer for
(13:57):
a moment here, because he has an anecdote about a
house he was working on that was built in nineteen
thirteen and had burned down and needed rebuilding. And this
gives us a little bit of a look at the
appropriate rock for this kind of foundation.
Speaker 2 (14:13):
Yeah, it's true. He said the foundation of this house
was made of river rocks that had been taken from
the local river. But today you can't use rocks like
that because of things like building codes. Right, he does
say that you could use these natural, beautiful looking rocks
to as decorative pieces. But Simeon clearly was you know,
he wanted to build this on the cheap, as in
(14:35):
on the no money. You know, his whole goal. I'm
hoping the long term goal was to build his house
out of these stones. And then so Stoffer goes on
to add quote, if we had wanted to build a
natural stone wall but didn't have access to this collection
of rock already on the property, it would have caused
a considerable amount to import them. So in this case,
having found materials is a great benefit for both the
(14:57):
cost efficiency and beauty perspective, because again he had you know,
no one, no one has a lifetime to carry rocks
for a building job, but I mean seemed like he
had all the time in the world. He's a very
zen character to me. I really I kind of dig
his whole vibe.
Speaker 1 (15:12):
It's interesting to watch your interpretation of him evolve even
in the course of this episode. And we don't have
a ton of information about Ellerton as we as we
said at the top, but we do know that he
kept going in some way in a symbolic way. So
after he has his home built, he's not carrying these heavy,
(15:34):
load bearing, potentially load bearing rocks on his head, but
he's still walking around with a very interesting habit.
Speaker 2 (15:42):
Yeah, he had a bag of rocks, right, And to me,
this is sort of the clue I was looking for
that he had a plan. He was that Andy Dufrain
level of like forward thinking. You know, there was a
lot going on this. I'm like, you're right. My perspective
on this guy really is evolving. And the more we
talk about him, I like him very very much.
Speaker 1 (16:01):
And it's reported that he still felt as though the
extra weight was a requirement for him to enjoy walking.
And maybe we end this part of weird people who
built weird things. Maybe we end it with one of
our favorite quotes that we found from Ellerton.
Speaker 2 (16:19):
Yeah. I mean, you know, he was a known dude
around town and people would stop him. Seems like he
was probably pretty friendly because whenever someone would inquire a
reason for carrying these rocks or having a weight upon
his head, he would always reply, tis to keep on
my hat. It's so beautiful, man.
Speaker 1 (16:41):
I think this guy seems like he'd be fun to
hang out.
Speaker 2 (16:44):
He really does, he really really does. I want to
build a religion around this man. Ah.
Speaker 1 (16:51):
I'm glad that we're verging into spirituality here or the
more esoteric fields, because we found another person that we
wanted to explore, another weird guy or visionary who built
a weird thing, or should we say a visionary thing.
The choice, friends and neighbors is up to you. We
(17:13):
would like to introduce you to something called Coral Castle,
built by a man named Edward Leed Skeldon.
Speaker 2 (17:22):
That's a doozy of a last name there.
Speaker 1 (17:23):
He's Latvian. So there's a small town in Florida. It's
called Homestead, And in Homestead is one of the most
bizarre structures in Florida. It's a ten acre stone park
called Coral Castle. By himself, Edward built this thing, and
(17:48):
he made it using around two hundred and forty three
tons of gigantic coral blocks.
Speaker 2 (17:55):
Okay, so he's upping the anne here a little bit.
And there's about one hundred years later than our boys said,
and some technology does come into play for this man's story.
But set the scene for us, Ben.
Speaker 1 (18:06):
Sure, sure, So let's lead up to the construction of
the castle. You see when he was around twenty six.
Edward was born in January of eighteen eighty seven in Latvia.
We don't know too much about his childhood other than
he wasn't super well off, He wasn't part of the
(18:28):
Latvia and elite, and he only had a formal education
going up to about fourth grade, but he was a
real bookworm. And when he was around twenty six, he
was engaged to marry a lady named Agnes Scuffs. She
was about ten years younger than Edward, and when she
broke the engagement, he said, blast it all and he
(18:52):
decided that he was going to move to the United States.
So he immigrated to North America. Originally he arrived in
New York City and then he originally after that traveled
to Oregon, but he caught tuberculosis and this inspired him
(19:12):
to move to Florida for the climate, right yeah, yeah,
for the climate. Then he purchased an acre of land,
and according to newspaper reports of the time, he was
going to construct.
Speaker 2 (19:26):
A home and an acre that was affordable. He didn't
have to be a swell to afford an acre, right, yeah, yeah, exactly.
Everyone had an opportunity. It was a land of opportunity
in those days. Now, you know, buy me an acre
in in Atlanta. I'll show you a square that costs
a million dollars.
Speaker 1 (19:43):
Oh yeah, too true, and that might be a deal.
So like our earlier example with Ellerton, there's not a
whole lot known about this guy's early life, but there's
a lot of conjecture. What we do know is that
instead of building a normal house quote unquote normal house,
(20:04):
he spent over twenty years, almost the next three decades
expanding this strange, bizarre stone garden. And he worked in
secret and by himself, and even today some people will
(20:26):
argue that he had some sort of mysterious insight into construction.
Speaker 2 (20:32):
Well, he was carrying a torch for Agnes, right this
whole time. This was all an act of sadness kind
of right, or it was like meant to be a
monument to her in some way, even though she totally
screwed him over.
Speaker 1 (20:44):
Yeah, yeah, almost like a dirge or a breakup love
song in stone form. And you can see the sheer
scale of these things today. It's also strange that Ed
you want to just call him Ed for this, Yeah, Eddie, Yeah, Eddie,
there we go. Eddie was five feet tall and only
(21:06):
around one hundred pounds fell. Yeah, and no one saw
him work, like, literally, no one ever saw how he
constructed it. And when we say a rock garden, we're
not just talking about several large slabs of coral stuck,
(21:26):
you know, thirty feet apart from each other or something.
He was carving this. He even made furniture, these oversized beds,
rocking chairs, fountains, tables, sundials, a throne. So I guess
he made the I guess he made like a chair
and then said, you know what this outa asked a
(21:47):
rock or look regal.
Speaker 2 (21:49):
Now do we talk about the fact that he started
this in one location and moved it about ten miles.
Speaker 1 (21:54):
We should mention that. Yeah, because he had to expand it,
because he started with that one acre and he ended
up with ten He needed more room.
Speaker 2 (22:00):
Where's his money coming from, Ben, Where's his money coming from?
Speaker 1 (22:03):
Well, he did make some pamphlets, So what you're saying
is questionable. Questionable, No questionable. We know that he did
publish pamphlets on a number of subjects that people had
paid for, including pamphlets on his beliefs about magnetism. He
(22:25):
was another eccentric and because of these pamphlets he published
where he remarked on his perception of the nature of
you know, forces in the universe, A lot of people
had thought that he had some well they would call
it an ancient insight into gravity or magnetism. It did
(22:46):
not help that in one response, when people asked him
how he built Coral Castle, all he said was that
he had quote learned the secrets of the pyramids? Cool vague.
Speaker 2 (23:03):
Yeah, So does this.
Speaker 1 (23:06):
Mean that he had you know, for some of the
more conspiracy minded folks, would this mean that he had
access to some ancient wisdom? I mean maybe, according to
writers like Benjamin Radford, the secret of the pyramid may
be a real thing, largely forgotten construction techniques. But instead
of like strange electromagnetic forces or anti gravity or any
(23:29):
of that jazz, maybe he just built police tripods and
winches to exert leverage and provide mechanical advantage.
Speaker 2 (23:37):
Yeah, and this is still there, right, Yeah, this is
still there.
Speaker 1 (23:40):
You can go see it. The average weight of the
stones about fourteen tons each. He also made a tower
twenty two ton obelisk. And he was a master of
balancing things. So there's like a door that opens and
stuff all made of coral, all fragnus scruffs old.
Speaker 2 (23:56):
Scruffy, and so you know. He passed away in I
think fifty one, and his nephew, who had been living
in Michigan at the time, inherited the castle. And this
is a kind of a creepy part. When the ownership
was being was switching hands. After the death, they found
a box of old Eddi's stuff, personal stuff, and it
(24:16):
had a list of instructions that led to the discovery
of his life savings, which was thirty five one hundred
dollars bills inflation.
Speaker 1 (24:26):
That's been all right here we are thirty five one
hundred dollars in nineteen fifty three, is casey, could we
have a drome role please? Thirty two seven hundred and
sixty one dollars and ninety seven cents.
Speaker 2 (24:46):
Okay, so not a rich man, but very much a
kindred spirit to Simeon Ellerton, big time forward thinking, ingenuitous?
Is that is that a word?
Speaker 1 (24:58):
I mean? English is a living language.
Speaker 2 (25:00):
So I'm gonna, I'm going I'm making it a word,
go coin it right now like it in But said,
don't you think they're both like? I mean? It is
kind of it's a bummer that Ed's story is a
little bit more sad. Although we don't know what happened
to Sammy and Allerton. We don't know why he was
carrying those stones. He could have been carrying them as
some kind of ritual for someone that he had lost
as well.
Speaker 1 (25:20):
The legend that I just made up is that you
can still find him out there in the hills walking today.
Speaker 2 (25:27):
A shiver just went up my spine, Ben when you
said that.
Speaker 1 (25:30):
So so, yes, we do not know what happened to
Simey and Ellerton. We do know a little bit more
about Edward passing away, but we can end on a
positive note with his story by saying that he did
not just construct something grandiose, ambitious, and weird. He constructed
(25:51):
it to a high degree of competency. During Hurricane Andrew
in nineteen ninety two, not one of these stones shifted.
The eight foot wall that rings the property is still
at the same height. And today people will still tell you,
with varying degrees of credibility, what they think his secret
(26:13):
method actually was. And he himself claimed to harness a
perpetual power to move the stones.
Speaker 2 (26:25):
He certainly possessed a perpetual power to move me, my friend.
And you know another connection between Simeon and Edward. I
wish we knew a little bit more about Simon about
how long it took him to collect all those stones.
We do know, though, however, about Edward that it took
him from nineteen twenty three to nineteen fifty one to
(26:45):
knock out that that coral castle.
Speaker 1 (26:49):
And you know, if you ever find yourself in the area,
do pay it a visit. You know, it's a part
of obscure history that a lot of people miss. But
he was not the only person who built a weird thing.
I want to give a shout out to just a
couple of people.
Speaker 2 (27:07):
Please we promise that at the top of the show,
we can't let people down.
Speaker 1 (27:10):
Oh right, well, shout out to rich Art. That's Richard
with a T instead of a D. Rich Art. Soa
Sowa who built the very inspiring Spiral Island and its replacement,
joy Z Island j O y x ee. These are
(27:31):
built out of sustainable materials. He built the island by himself.
The first one was sixty six feet in diameter, made
out of one hundred thousand bottles, and then expanded as
he planted mangroves growing on the island.
Speaker 2 (27:46):
It's got a beach house. Mangrove is that like a mango.
Speaker 1 (27:51):
It's a it's a type of small tree that grows
in coastal waters or you know, brackish semi salty waters
got it, so he continued growing this uh, partially as
an artistic statement and partially is an aim toward a
you know, an example of how we could live more sustainably.
(28:16):
There's another man named Estavao Silva do Contao who built
on his own a housemaid of found materials. You can
see in the walls, yeah, cups, rocks, yeah, sculpture and.
Speaker 2 (28:32):
Reminds me of Sea Rock City.
Speaker 1 (28:35):
Oh that's a good call too.
Speaker 2 (28:36):
That's so cool. I wish I wish this was an
audio podcast. And this is just this is just probably
titillating you in a negative way. But look, what's what's
how do you? How do you find this? Ben? Uh?
Speaker 1 (28:47):
You can you can find this. There's a great thing
you can see on Reuters called Brazil's homegrown Goudie by
a Polo Whittaker because this is located in uh Valla
in Salpaulo, and it drew comparisons to a famous Catalan
architect named Antony Galdi. And the guy who built it
(29:10):
had never heard of this architect, he had never seen
any photos of that work. He had just built this
home for himself and then later started a family in
it and you know, personally, I find these stories incredibly
inspiring and we'd like to hear some more stories from you.
Is there anybody in your neck of the global woods
who has built a strange, fascinating structure edifice under their
(29:35):
own power? And you know what, you know what, let's
open it up a little. I think let's maybe not
say just a single person, but maybe like a family.
Absolutely there's some siblings or something.
Speaker 2 (29:47):
Yeah, And speaking of broadening the net, I think it's
time for our first ever attempt at a new segment
we'd like to call extra Credit.
Speaker 1 (29:59):
Yes, that's right, Friends and neighbors. Extra Credit, the segment
where we are expanding the typical show that we might
normally do, you know. And we've been talking back and
forth about this one, and we're excited because what better
way to kick it off than with a very very
special guest.
Speaker 2 (30:19):
Yes, we have a child, a human child here in
the podcast studio, smartest one in the room. She is
the smartest one in the room, and she's actually we're related.
Nepotism going on here. This is Ladies and Gentlemen, Eden Brown, Oho,
you just waved. We don't really know what this segment
(30:42):
is all about. We're just gonna play it by ear
are you Are you into it? Okay, We're gonna ask
you some questions. Okay, well you got this.
Speaker 1 (30:50):
Okay, you've got this. Eden, So so thank you so
much for coming on the show. And we're really we're
really thrilled to have you. And you heard earlier we
were talking about these people who built these crazy things
out of stone by themselves. If you were going to
build something like that, what what? What kind of thing
(31:11):
would you build?
Speaker 4 (31:12):
I would build the sculpture of a unicorn?
Speaker 1 (31:16):
Oh?
Speaker 3 (31:17):
Yeah?
Speaker 1 (31:17):
How big would it be?
Speaker 3 (31:19):
Jude?
Speaker 2 (31:20):
Can you give us some specific measurements? Could you sketch
it out for us? Hang on, ladies and gentlemen, she's sketching.
Speaker 1 (31:28):
We're handy, miss Brown, some pen and papery. Noel, could
you narrate?
Speaker 2 (31:32):
Okay, she's drawing a line here, looks like that's the unicorns.
I'm thinking that's its butt. No, that's the horn. Excuse me,
excuse me? Okay, I think we get the idea. So Eden,
Why why a unicorn? And what would this mean to you?
What would you want?
Speaker 4 (31:46):
I'm obsessed with You're obsessed with unicorns?
Speaker 2 (31:50):
Really? Is that true? Do you what what is it
about unicorns that you enjoy so much?
Speaker 4 (31:58):
They're magical and they dance on rainbows?
Speaker 2 (32:03):
Do they?
Speaker 4 (32:04):
Yes?
Speaker 2 (32:05):
I did not know this, so I would you know what?
Speaker 1 (32:08):
I am inspired by that. I would definitely go see
a massive unicorn. Where would you build this unicorn?
Speaker 2 (32:17):
Hmmm?
Speaker 4 (32:18):
I would build it in my backyard.
Speaker 2 (32:23):
And would you charge admission? Because that is one thing
these two stories. Our second guy with the coral castle,
it did eventually start making a little money off of tours.
Speaker 1 (32:32):
That's true.
Speaker 2 (32:33):
You know, his heart was in the right place about
just like making it. And then once it was done,
it's like, well, you know what I mean, I did
all this work, I might as well make a little scratch.
So and Eden, I know that you upfront would be
doing it just for the pure joy of doing it.
But once it was done, how much would you charge
for people to come see this giant stone unicorn in
your backyard?
Speaker 4 (32:52):
I would cost twenty five dollars to come.
Speaker 2 (32:57):
And see it. That seems a little steep.
Speaker 1 (32:59):
Twenty five dollars. Do you get a shirt?
Speaker 4 (33:01):
Yes?
Speaker 1 (33:02):
Okay, I'm back in Okay. So I've got a question.
I'm sure all the all the listeners out there are wondering, Eating,
and that is would the unicorn have colors to it?
Would it be?
Speaker 4 (33:17):
I would paint the rocks?
Speaker 1 (33:19):
Uh huh? And yeah, fantastic for twenty five dollars.
Speaker 2 (33:24):
Yeah, I would hope you get a little color for
twenty five All right, well, okay, I guess this is
what extra credit is.
Speaker 1 (33:32):
Thank you so much, Eating for coming onto the show
and hanging out with me and your dad and our
super producer Casey.
Speaker 2 (33:40):
Spoiler alert, Eden took a sick day to day and
that's why she's here day and before she infects us
all we better get a move on. We hope that
you enjoyed the show. We hope you enjoyed our Running
Out of Ideas episode, which actually turned out to be
kind of chock full of ideas.
Speaker 1 (33:57):
I'm so weird a doubt that you call it the
running out of ideas episode.
Speaker 2 (34:00):
It's just a subtitle I'm working on.
Speaker 1 (34:03):
All right. Well, I am still a fan of weird
people building weird things.
Speaker 2 (34:08):
That's fantastic, weird people building weird things. The Running out
of Ideas episode it's a little long.
Speaker 1 (34:14):
Well, we'll workshop it and maybe our next episode of
extra credit will take us to Coral Castle itself for.
Speaker 2 (34:20):
Anywhere, Chuck E Cheese, you know the mall.
Speaker 1 (34:23):
Yeah, Dave and Busters, whatever you got the Grand Canyon.
Speaker 2 (34:27):
No, it's true. The thing about extra credit is that
it's very open ended and it's just a good way
to do something a little different at the end of
the show.
Speaker 1 (34:35):
And of course, as always, we would like to thank
our super producer, Casey Pegram. While we're recording this, and
Eden saw this earlier when she was sitting outside of
the booth, we sometimes turned to Casey and raise our
eyebrows to check to see if he's if he's giving
his look of approval, and he seems okay overall, I
(34:58):
think so too.
Speaker 2 (34:59):
Yeah, it seems like he's in a very fine chipper mood.
So definitely, big thanks to Casey, Big thanks to Alex Williams,
who composed our theme. Most importantly, big thanks to you
for tuning in and hanging out with us for another
episode of Ridiculous History. If you have any thoughts, comments, complaints,
keep the complaints, just just give us the nice stuff.
You can write to us at ridiculous at HowStuffWorks dot com.
Speaker 1 (35:20):
Oh and we do have a new complaint department. You
can write directly to our complaint department Jonathan dot Strickland
at HowStuffWorks dot com. You can find us on Instagram, Facebook, Twitter,
and various other internettings. I'm gonna just go with internetting.
Speaker 2 (35:41):
I like it the Internet.
Speaker 1 (35:42):
It's a net and of course a very special thanks
to our inaugural guest of extra credit, Eden Brown. No,
let's say we give her the last word today.
Speaker 3 (35:55):
Goodbye.
Speaker 2 (36:14):
For more podcasts from iHeartRadio, visit the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts,
or wherever you listen to your favorite shows
Ridiculous History News
Hosts And Creators
Ben Bowlin
Noel Brown
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