Welcome to Erin Mankie's Cabinet of Curiosity's, a production of I Heart Radio and Grimm

and Mild.

Our world is full of the unexplainable.

And if history is an open book, all of these amazing tales are right there on display,

just waiting for us to explore.

Welcome to the Cabinet of Curiosity's.

Oftentimes when people die, we erect a lasting tribute to their memory.

It could be a headstone in a graveyard or a small shrine in our home, or even a statue

in a park.

Every person, famous or not, affects the world around them for better or for worse, and

those who've left their mark deserve to be remembered.

But sometimes we don't get it right the first time, and the way we honor someone we lost

needs a do-over.

It started with a mob, but not an angry mob, an inspired one.

The people of Boone's Burrow, Maryland had all congregated on July 4th of 1827 in the

town square with one job to build a monument.

Two years earlier, the Maryland General Assembly had voted to fund the project with money earned

through the state's lottery program.

Many initiatives were given budgets that way, with players buying tickets printed with numbers

on them just as they do today.

The structure was to be made of stone and rise to the sky, like a finger pointing toward

the heavens.

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