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Supposedly, just one man built the Coral castle. Jilted by the woman who would be his wife, and miraculously recovering from a terminal case of tuberculosis, Edward Leedskanlin built the structure in Florida City, Florida sometime around 1923.

He is said to have worked at night, by lamplight when he could not be seen, moving and carving stones which weighed up to several tons each.

It remained until around 1936, when he decided to move.

He then packed the whole structure (approximately 1,100 tons) up and took it with him.

Using material from a nearby quarry, he would continue to work on it at his new location until he died of advanced stomach cancer in 1951. At no point was he witnessed using modern machinery.

The coral castle remains standing at this location in Homestead, Florida where it can be viewed today.

In addition to the claims Leedskanlin himself made regarding various phenomena as "magnetic currents" there have been numerous supernatural claims made as to how this structure would have to have been built.

picture of the 30 ton stone from wikipedia

Is there any way one man, working alone, mostly at night, could have made this structure without using modern equipment? Its website is here.

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  • The coral "castle" is not actually particularly large. Compare e.g. to the cars shown in this Google Map satellite image. I saw it from a drone once and it seemed a bit underwhelming. I think there's just a bunch of marketing involved here and the total effort required to build it during some years is not something extraordinary.
    – user24945
    Aug 16, 2021 at 18:52

2 Answers 2

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Ed Leedlaskin likely used fairly simple techniques in constructing Coral Castle, a process that took him somewhere around 30 years.

This site features some images of Mr. Leedalskin working on the castle using block and tackle, as well as using a electronic lift, and some examples of the chains he used which are still there on site.

Peter Thomson - Coral Castle

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  • I think you mean "electric lift", not "electronic lift".
    – Keith Thompson
    Jul 13, 2013 at 23:59
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Yes, it is possible. A guy called Wally Wallington moves huge concrete blocks by himself using pieces of wood.

I don't know about how reasonable his claims to have figured out "how they did it" are, but it's a lot of clever moving of really big stones, done by one or a few people. So yes, it's possible, given enough time and a long enough lever. :-)

He is basically using a "walking" technique where he is putting something the block can rotate on close to the center of gravity, so that he doesn't have to lift the blocks completely, he just lifts a bit and then use the rotating point as a hinge.

To lift he uses levers and lifts the blocks just a small bit at a time, and them moves in a piece of wood to act as a new hinge to lift the other side of the block.

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  • Whilst this may technically answer the question, it would be preferable to include the essential parts of the answer here, and provide the link for reference. Blockquotes are an excellent way to do this.
    – Borror0
    Apr 4, 2011 at 12:01
  • Couldn't find any good quotes, so I added a short explanation.
    – Lennart Regebro
    Apr 4, 2011 at 12:18
  • Although Wally Wallington demonstrates that it is possible to move huge blocks of stone with little to no effort, this does not demonstrate that Leedstalking himself eventually built the Coral Castle, as he claimed.
    – Auron
    Apr 4, 2011 at 12:37
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    @Auron: No, but the question was if it is possible. Proving that he did it without help is asking to prove a negative fact, and impossible to prove, it can only be disproven.
    – Lennart Regebro
    Apr 4, 2011 at 12:58
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    Therefore, Mikes answer is better. People should give him some more votes. :)
    – Lennart Regebro
    Apr 8, 2011 at 10:25

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