To this day, Ed Leedskalnin remains a bit of a mystery. I first heard of him on an Unsolved Mysteries TV show. Ed was born in Riga, Latvia on August 10th, 1887. (Some say technically, it was in Stramereens Pogosta, a small village near Riga.) When Ed was 26, he wanted to marry a girl whom he called his "sweet sixteen" (Agnes Scuffs). The night before their wedding, she called it off saying he was too old for her. Later, Ed would also find out she felt he didn't have enough money either. Heartbroken, Ed moved to Canada, California, and Texas. Then he moved to Florida for his health. While in Florida, he constructed, on his own, "Coral Castle" which was made up entirely of coral rock weighing 1,100 tons. What makes this unusual, is that Ed was barely over 5 feet tall and weighed 100 pounds. Ed did this as a tribute to his "sweet sixteen".
    He started this tribute in Florida City, Florida, then moved it to Homestead, Florida. Many people saw the coral carvings being moved bewteen these two places on his modified truck, but no one actually ever saw Ed loading or unloading the trailer. If anyone ever questioned Ed about how he moved these heavy blocks of coral, he would only reply that he understood the laws of weight and leverage well. Some say he used levitation, some say he knew the secrets of the ancient Egyptians who built the pyramids. Some say that he just told people what they wanted to hear. Maybe it was just determination, but Coral Castle still stands as a molument to his efforts.
    Below are a few photos I took while at the Coral Castle. While there, I also bought all of his "complete writings" in the hope that there might be some clue as to his construction techniques. One book is labeled "A Book In Every Home" and is just a few pages of his philosphy about life, women and politics. Mostly, you can tell he was scorned about his disolution of his relationship with Agnes. In one passage he talks about "dirtied women" and how mothers should take the responsibility. He sounded very jaded about life and marriage.

A lot more about Ed Leedskalnin can be found his the Coral Castle's official site.