After
moving to Homestead from Florida City, Ed's very first creation was the water
well. This is a logical guess, but it makes a lot of sense, because water is a
basic necessity. There were no houses or shops nearby back then and Ed never
applied for running water. So, he must have dug the well first to do his daily
chores.
The well is
somewhat spiral in shape, resembling the letter C. Ed has built a wall around
the well that is a foot and a half feet high and has carved descending stairs
into the well, with 16 steps (sweet-sixteen?). We can see the water about six
and a half feet below the ground. The well is about nine and a half feet deep,
so there is about 3 feet of water, most of the time.
On top of
the well, Ed has placed a cylindrical wooden log, with a metal rod sticking out
of it. The purpose of this log is obvious, Ed used it as a pulley to draw water
out of the well using a rope and bucket. Ed would have simply rotated the metal
rod with one hand to make it even easier.
The water
well is one of the most understudied creations of Edward Leedskalnin. Most
people think: It is just a water well, what is so special about it? Well, it is
not only the most mysterious carving in Coral Castle but also one of the
weirdest water wells in the world.
If you have been reading the above paragraphs carefully, the following question should have already popped into your head: "If Ed used a rope and bucket to draw water, why did he create a spiral well with stairs?"
The spiral
design with stairs makes no sense because Ed drew water using a rope and
bucket. Multiple eyewitness accounts confirm this is how Ed drew water and the
pulley (wooden log) is still there as evidence. To draw water from the well
this way, all he needed was a regular cylindrical well with a few square feet
of area. But Ed had to carve out a much larger area simply because he decided
on a spiral well. This means enormous amount of work, because he had to cut a
lot more rocks. Why did Ed create a spiral design even though it is a lot of work?
He needed the stairs, to directly access the water underground! This is the
only logical reason. Why did Ed have to physically touch the subterranean
water? Read more at Coral Castle: Everything You Know Is Wrong
