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You're listening to the second and final part of Unexplained Season 9, Episode 4, to each man his castle.

In January of 1932, a small, poorly written advertisement in the Miami Daily News invited

curious sightseers to visit an obscure corner of southern Florida.

The directions were clear, if somewhat reliant on local knowledge.

Go towards Florida City, then follow Palm Avenue south to Redland Road.

After half a mile turned west and continue for another quarter mile. There, the ad promised,

you will find Ed's place. The cost of entry was 10 cents. Two photographs accompanied the advert.

The first depicted a maze-like arrangement of stones, though thegrained image made it hard to discern the exact

layout. The second photo is clearer and shows a man in a shirt, tie, and dark formal trousers.

His hair is crisply parted and his posture is as tense as his face is haggard.

He is unrecognizable from the first photograph

taken of him on American shores some 20 years previously. But the most noteworthy thing in the photo

is not the man. It's the chair he is sitting on, a carved block of rough stone, over two tons in weight. Next to it is a huge

tabletop sitting on rough-hewn stone legs. In the photograph, the dimensions, shape and true

size are hard to make out. But visitors to the strange exhibition would discover that the table is carved

into the shape of the state of Florida. This vast furniture is the sole work of the man sitting at them,

rocking in his colossal armchair, trying and failing to convey a sense of ease and relaxation. His diminutive frame only serves to highlight the sheer scale of the stone that surrounds him.

It is Edward Leedsgalnin, of course, and all that stone is the first iteration of his life's work.

It would have many names over the years. At the time the photo was taken,

it was Ed's Place. Later, it would be known as Rockgate Park. But in the enduring public imagination,

...