The Greatest Love Story Ever or The Man who Knew The Secrets of the Pyramids

We have all been dumped. Or we were the dumper. Either way our reactions to those events helped shaped who we were, how we approached relationships in the future and how much whisky is too much. Consider the case of one Edward Leedskalnin, a Latvian immigrant, who in 1913 was all set to marry the girl of his dreams. One day before the wedding, she cancelled. Copious amount of booze for Eddie? Nope. He took out his grief by cutting and moving HUGE masses of coral rock into a tribute to his long-lost love. He did this for the next 28 years! Alone! Some of the pieces he was working with weighed 28 tons! And he used ONLY HAND TOOLS! Ed’s unusual creation is called the Coral Castle. He carved and sculpted over 1,100 tons of coral rock as a testimony to his lost love, Agnes.

But wait there’s more…..Ed weighed as much as Nicole Richie during her fat days (100 lbs) and was just over 5 feet tall. In 1936, a subdivision was being built near his Florida City home and Ed decided to move his monuments 10-miles to Homestead. Many people have seen the coral carvings being moved along the Dixie Highway, but no one has actually ever seen Ed loading or unloading the trailer. Four years later in 1940 he finished erecting the 8 feet tall, 4 feet wide, 3 foot thick, and 58 tons walls which weighed approximately weigh 125 pounds per cubic foot. When questioned how he moved the blocks of coral, Ed would only reply that he understood the laws of weight and leverage well. He has baffled engineers and scientists alike and some have compared Ed’s secret method of construction to Stonehenge and the Great Pyramids. Ed died in 1951. The woman who plagued his mind for 28 years? Well in 1980, Agnes Scuffs was 86 and still alive. A formal invitation to see the Castle was extended her; she declined. "I wasn't interested then, and I'm not interested now."

www.coralcastle.com/

28655 South Dixie Highway
Homestead, FL 33033
(305) 248-6345

This 9 ton gate baffles engineers today; 9 tons of coral rock is mounted on the wheel bearings of a 1920 Ford Model A truck. It is so perfectly balanced, a child can push it open with one finger.