Robert the Doll

 By Dureal Dobbs

Robert the Doll's background started off with him being gifted to a child named Gene. They did everything together and talked about everything. Gene had the attic as Robert’s house, it had furniture and he even gave him his own teddy bear. His parents thought Gene was just doing a different voice for Robert but realized the doll was possessed when they heard furniture moving, and Gene balled up on his bed in fear. They locked Robert in the attic for years but would still hear footsteps. Many kids would see Robert move in the window from side to side.  

Later on Gene became a painter and he wanted to spark up their relationship. Doing that caused him to blame his shortcomings on Robert. It caused problems with Gene’s wife because he would have random mood swings and beat her. Gene died then not too long after his wife died as well.

More people moved into the house and a 10 years old little girl found Robert in the attic. Robert did the same exact thing to the girl. He was later on sent to a museum where other possessed dolls are. The museum is Fort East Martello Museum where he resides in a box. The box is covered  with writings from people begging him to release his curse. Robert glitches in pictures but it stops as soon as people leave the museum. Robert is examined yearly to make sure the humidity of Florida is not affecting his wool. His misfortune causes such as car accidents, broken bones, job loss, divorce, and many other tragedies They dove deeper about the gifts Robert’s gift he received such as candy, money, letters, advice, emails, and even kept up with his social media and catalogs. This curse happens when people take pictures without permission or save pictures on their devices.

Work Cited

“Robert the Doll.” Atlas Obscura. 2021.https://www.atlasobscura.com/articles/story-behind-robert-the-doll 

Discover the Story of Robert the Doll.The Artist House.2021, History of Fort East Martello – Key West Art and Historical Society. Kwahs.org.

 “Haunted doll is safely at home in the Key West museum.” Daily Journal.2015.https://www.daily-journal.com/life/travel/haunted-doll-is-safely-at-home-in-key-west-museum/article_13239a0b-d3e3-5e56-ba7d-dde6cd1e23e7.html

For Further Research:

https://www.atlasobscura.com/articles/story-behind-robert-the-doll This source gives a solid background infromation on Robert.

https://www.kwahs.org/8579-2 This article talks more about Robert being in the museum and his curse.

https://www.daily-journal.com/life/travel/haunted-doll-is-safely-at-home-in-key-west-museum/article_13239a0b-d3e3-5e56-ba7d-dde6cd1e23e7.html It gave a person input on how Robert and his experience seeing him.

The Hauntings of St. Augustine Lighthouse, Florida

 Author: Solace Steele

 

Imagine catching what appears to be a silhouette of
someone peering down from two staircases above. 

This sighting has become more common than
others when touring the lighthouse.

Spooky Season has arrived at long last, and Halloween is just around the corner. It’s the perfect
time to indulge in candy and other traditions that accompany this holiday, and those who are
interested in everything paranormal are in for a treat if they’re willing to take their chance and
explore. The St. Augustine Lighthouse in Florida is one of the oldest points of navigation in U.S.
history. The lighthouse that stands today is the second one and was constructed in the late 1700s when the first collapsed due to erosion. It has also stood tall and proud through many battles during its time. Still, there is more to this lighthouse than what initially meets the eye. Its history is tainted with death, and to this day spirits remain tethered to it, having been unable to move on for centuries. One of St. Augustine’s most famous ghost stories begins with Hezekiah Pittee, who was the superintendent of the second lighthouse construction. Kelcie Lloyd, the Special Programs Manager at St. Augustine Lighthouse, explains this tragic tale in her article titled Ghost Stories: The Pittee Girls. He had four children named Mary, Eliza, Edward, and Carrie. They utilized the construction site as one giant playground and favored a supply cart that ran from the site to the dock where supply ships would wait. Little did they know that supply cart would carry them to a watery grave. The only thing preventing them from tumbling into the water at the time was a wooden board. On the day of July 28, 1873, the Pittee siblings and an unidentified African American girl were on their makeshift rollercoaster, and as it turns out, that wooden board was no longer secured in place to stop the cart. So, it tipped over and into the water. The girls were trapped beneath it, and by the time a worker raced to remove it, three of the four girls had drowned. Carrie, the youngest, was the only survivor. 

The Pittee family, originally from Maine, moved back to their home to bury their loved ones there,
and the resting place of the unidentified African American girl has yet to be discovered. 

 

 This video follows Buzzfeed Unsolved co-hosts 

Shane Madej and Ryan Bergara as they visit

 the St. Augustine Lighthouse after hours to 

provide viewers a ghostly experience

Many years have passed since this tragic incident, but that was not the last the world would ever
see of these children. Not to mention, there were more who had died here. Some of these
individuals include William Harn, Peter Rasmussen, and Joseph Andreu, who have supposedly
been sighted around the lighthouse and the keeper’s house below it. Rasmussen’s spirit is easily
identified through reports of the scent of cigar smoke. Andreu met his end after falling off the
lighthouse when painting it during its construction. Harn was one of the first keepers of the
lighthouse, and unfortunately the first to die in it after a long battle with malaria and tuberculosis.
Many strange occurrences have happened since then, with staff members and tourists reporting
ghostly encounters. There have been reports of footsteps being heard upstairs, with no one present upon investigation, as well as sightings of little girls standing and disappearing not a second later. Staff and tourists have also noted the smell of cigar smoke, doors being left wide open despite having been locked the night before, EMF readings, the sound of music boxes playing, and more. The St. Augustine Lighthouse is a favorite among tourists intrigued by the unexplainable and has even been featured on an episode of SyFy’s own Ghost Hunters. It seems safe to say that human beings absolutely must have an explanation for things, and the paranormal refuses to provide one, which surely contributes to the lack of belief in them. However, some answers must be sought after, and perhaps a ghost tour of the lighthouse would be a good place to start. 

Works Cited
A&E. “Ghost Hunters: Return to Haunted St. Augustine.” YouTube, 13 May 2020,
https://youtu.be/Pa5-O0nnshU

Anya016. “St. Augustine Lighthouse – Florida.” Random Times, 21 April 2020, https://random-
times.com/2020/04/21/st-agustine-lighthouse-florida/

Buzzfeed Unsolved Network. “The Haunted Shadows Of The St. Augustine Lighthouse.”
YouTube, 27 Sept. 2019, https://youtu.be/fU-8Rg4CgeI.

Ghostsandgravestones.com. “Haunted Guide to the St. Augustine Lighthouse.”
https://www.ghostsandgravestones.com/st-augustine/lighthouse-haunted

Lemmon, Kathryn. “The Haunted Side of St. Augustine, Fla.” Nexis Uni, 5 October 2012,
https://advance-lexis-com.eu1.proxy.openathens.net/document/?
pdmfid=1516831&crid=5cda0547-d12b-425a-9140-557a795b8445&pddocfullpath=
%2Fshared%2Fdocument%2Fnews%2Furn%3AcontentItem%3A56RN-KHT1-JC8H-
N2CD-00000-
00&pdcontentcomponentid=157000&pdteaserkey=sr0&pditab=allpods&ecomp=xzvnk&e
arg=sr0&prid=b5d2c776-f0df-4118-84b1-55a172717caa

Lloyd, Kelcie. “Ghost Stories: The Pittee Girls.” St. Augustine Lighthouse and Maritime Museum.
2 March 2020,
https://www.staugustinelighthouse.org/2020/03/02/ghost-stories-the-pittee-girls/

Links for further research
1. The Ghosts of the St. Augustine Lighthouse
https://ghostcitytours.com/st-augustine/haunted-places/st-augustine-lighthouse/
An article providing an overview of the ghosts that inhabit the St. Augustine Lgihthouse
2. The St. Augustine Light
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/St._Augustine_Light
A Wikipedia article that provides the history of the entire lighthouse as well as more
resources for further research.
3. staugustinelighthouse.org home page
https://www.staugustinelighthouse.org/
The official lighthouse webpage itself. It offers information on the lighthouse and its
history, as well as how to set up tours.

The Hauntings of St. Augustine, Florida

Author: Gracie Willis

The Lighthouse in St. Augustine

As we draw near the spookiest day of the year, October 31st, you may find yourself craving a creepy experience of your own. As it turns out, there is a bone-chilling city that you can visit all year round: St. Augustine, Florida. Although it is small, St. Augustine is known for its many haunted locations that are allegedly filled with the spirits of past residents. 

One of the most iconic haunted locations in St. Augustine is the city’s Old Jail. It is located in St. John's County  and attracts thousands of tourists every year. It served as the county jail for over 62 years, and during its time, you would not find happy tourists within its walls. The poor conditions of the Old Jail caused it to receive multiple citations. Dana St. Claire, director of St. Augustine 450th Commission, described the inmates as being “sentenced to death” upon their arrival. The inmates were packed into cells, sometimes hoarding up to six people in the small rooms. 

In another part of town, on the western side of Matanzas Bay, the Castillo de San Marcos stands tall. It was built in 1672 and initially served as a Spanish fort to hold prisoners of different Native American tribes. According to a legend, hundreds of years later, a local architect wandered into the fort to explore. After hearing a hollow sound from one of the walls, he decided to investigate. Inside, he found the hanging remains of two people who were believed to be the missing lovers, Delores and Manuel who went missing in 1784. Today, there are many reported sightings of unidentified figures including the “shadow man.” Those who see him, mostly staff members, describe him as a tall and very built man. Since the figure is allegedly so human-like, they report “waiting for him to move so they could continue taking pictures.” The military fort is currently open for both tours during the day, for the history, and during the night, for thrill seekers praying for a ghost sighting. 

Another one of St. Augustine’s most famous attractions is its haunted lighthouse. It was the first of its kind to be established. The lead producer on A&E’s “Ghost Hunters,”  Steve Gonsalves, describes the monument as “the Mona Lisa of haunted sites.” In 1871, after Americans discovered the lighthouse was sinking, it underwent extensive remodelings and it was almost completely reconstructed. The overseer of the task had many children and consistently brought them to the work site. One day, the children were roughhousing and riding around in a cart when it toppled over, sending them down a hill into the water below. Two of the three children drowned. Their spirits are rumored to haunt the island, which is probably why a lot of the ghost reports are of very young children. Workers report children’s laughter in the middle of the night as well as music boxes in the tower’s gift shop popping open and playing by themselves. 

St. Augustine’s long and dark history leaves plenty of room for theories surrounding the ghosts that may reside in its many historical sights. There are new ghost sightings every day. From the many conspiracies of people being buried alive to the old conditions of the Old Jail, these theories aren’t implausible. The dark history of St. Augustine sparks arguments from all sides, and in my opinion, will forever be known as one of the eeriest towns in all of America. 

 

Works cited:

Carpenter, Jenna. “A Look Back: What Happened Behind the Walls of the Old Jail” St. Augustine.com, June 14^th, 2015, https://www.staugustine.com/article/20150614/NEWS/306149965.

Old Town Trolley Tours, https://www.trolleytours.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/06/st-augustine-old-jail-interior-cells-600x580.jpg.

WJCT News, https://news.wjct.org/sites/wjct/files/styles/medium/public/201907/a_elighthouse.jpg.

“St. Augustine’s Newest Paranormal Experience.” Old Town Trolley Tours, https://www.trolleytours.com/st-augustine/old-jail-after-dark-tour.

Bjorkman, Sue. “The Ghosts of the Castillo de San Marcos.” Ghost City Tours, https://ghostcitytours.com/st-augustine/haunted-places/castillo-de-san-marcos/

“A Look Back: Haunted History at St. Augustine Lighthouse.” St. Augustine.com, October 26^th, 2014, https://www.staugustine.com/article/20141026/NEWS/310269932.

Ghost Hunters. Produced by Steve Gonsalves, A&E, 2004-, https://www.amazon.com/The-Invisible-Intelligence/dp/B01H4HW234/ref=sr_1_1?tag=tluweb-20.

Links for further research:

https://www.ghostsandgravestones.com/st-augustine/haunted-places
This website provides additional information on the alleged most haunted locations in Florida and around the country.

https://www.wheretraveler.com/st-augustine/play/st-augustines-haunted-history
This webpage provides information on the history of St. Augustine and its haunted past.

https://www.floridashistoriccoast.com/blog/ghost-tours-and-spooky-haunts-st-augustine/
“Florida’s Historic Coast” provides information about the best ghost tours and paranormal experiences in St. Augustine based on experience.

Coral Castle: Fact or Fiction?

Author: Corin Edwards

The Coral Castle has been in Homestead, Florida since he moved it in 1936. It took Edward Leedskalnin about 28 years to build this castle completely out of rock. Leedskalnin was about to marry his girlfriend Agnes, who he called his sweet sixteen, because she was sixteen at the time. He started building his rock castle in 1920 to show his love for Agnes after she called off the wedding. The structure is built completely out of oolite limestone  . Leedskalnin had no real building or lifting tools, just his hands and a carving tool for the rock. Since the beginning Leedskalnin has used the coral castle as a way to make money by charging people to come and see his progress. During the night he would crave the rocks and set them and then in the morning he would allow people to come in and see what he had done. Leedskalnin used his personal strength along with his knowledge of magnetic current to build the castle. He even wrote short books about magnetic current. Even though most scientist say that his finding are not right, it is still cool. 

No one could believe that Leedskalnin a man who was 5ft tall and weighed 100 pounds could build that castle by himself. To our amazement he did, not only did he build it but in 1936 he moved the entire structure. He did get a mover truck, however he insisted that the driver leave the truck overnight so that he could load the rocks himself. The mystery is how he did it with no help or lifting tools. Leedskalnin was a very secretive man who did not share his method with anyone, only moving and carving the rocks at night. There are several theories on how he could have done it, although none have ever been proven or tested. They are just speculations made by people and scientist. That was until Wally Wallington decided to build a replica in his back yard using only himself and gravity. His techniques look so simple, but no one had really thought of it as a way.

Leedskalnin was very smart and intuitive for his time. He was originally from Latvia a country that earned their independence from Russia in 2004 and became apart on NATO not long after; he was a self-taught engineer and sculptor who built one of Americas many amazing structures. In 1951, leedskalnin died from tuberculosis, although he is gone his work still lives today. Hundreds of people go to see the castle, there is a tour guide there who has been studying leedskalnin for years and is fascinated   with his work and theory's as well. Most people would not think that a man of his way would be able to pull something as amazing as this off, but he did.

Work Cited:

The Epoch Times. “The Mysterious Coral Castle: Built with Anti-Gravity Technology” Beyond Science, 15 Nov. 2017 https://www.beyondsciencetv.com/2017/11/15/overcoming-gravity-the-enigma-of-coral-castle/

Emery, Matt. "Double Helical Magnetic Interaction" Leedskalnin 2005 http://www.leedskalnin.com/

BBC News "Latvia Country Profile" 8 Oct. 2018. https://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-17522134.

Doore, Kathy. "A Geomantic Wonder" Labyrinthina http://www.labyrinthina.com/coral-castle.html 

Mike, "What is Oolitic Limestone" Everything Dinosaur 8 June 2015 https://blog.everythingdinosaur.co.uk/blog/_archives/2015/06/08/what-is-oolitic-limestone.html

Radford, Benjamin. "Mystery of the Coral Castle Explained" Live Science 1 June 2018 https://www.livescience.com/41075-coral-castle.html 

Sony IIce-7r “South Florida Coral Castle Attraction” Pixabay  https://cdn.pixabay.com/photo/2015/08/11/13/33/coral-castle-884520_960_720.jpg

Dunning, Brian. “Coral Castle” Skeptoid Podcast #149, Skeptoid Media, 14 Apr. 2009 https://skeptoid.com/episodes/4149


Links for Further Research:

http://ezproxy.usca.edu:2048/login?url=http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=aph&AN=86695678&site=ehost-live&scope=site
The link above is to an article about theory's people said about how Leedskalnin was able to move the rocks.

http://www.thebohemianblog.com/2014/12/the-coral-castle-masonic-mystery-in-the-sunshine-state.html
The article above give a better look andinteresting facts about the guy who built it, Edward Leedskalnin.

https://latvia.eu/ 
This is a website made by his home country. They have pictures, information on their traditions and culture, history and landmarks.

The Mystery of Coral Castle

Ali Hayes

Coral Castle and the crescent shaped moons

The sunshine state otherwise known as Florida has sand castles all around the coast, but have you ever heard of a coral castle in Florida? Well there is one and it has a mystery behind it.  A 5 foot, 100 pound man who moved from Latvia to America by the name Edward Leedskalnin  supposedly built this whole piece of art by himself in Homestead, Florida. The whole castle is made of sedimentary rock which is a limestone and he made into shaped walls, tables, and crescent moons, so the mystery is how did almost 100 years ago this little Latvian man build it all by himself over the course of 20 years (Radford). 

Wally Wallington a construction worker tried to replicate the work that Ed would have done to complete Coral Castle. Wallington said it is somewhat possible with the pull and levy technique, since there was not machinery while Ed was building the Castle. But there also is the belief that he had a unique insights to magnetism and electricity. People don’t know if it was on a spiritual level or he had built machinery since Ed unusually worked on building it at night with tall walls surrounding his work, he was very private (Dunning). Another theory behind the castle was that, local teenagers would spy of Ed at night while he was hard at work and they stated they heard him sing and see him lift his hands and the work would be done (Wagner). Why wouldn’t other people do the same thing as him then? It all is a mystery like the 9 ton gate that sits at the entrance to Coral Castle could be moved by the touch of a finger, when Ed was still alive and gave tours of his beloved museum people were fascinated, but later once Ed had passed away workers took down the gate and noticed  a metal rod was the reason behind the work. But still how did the little Latvian man do all this work by himself? Apparently Ed had recovered the secrets of the pyramids and he just knew how the Egyptians were able to create the massive pyramids, so that could of been a way that he built Coral Castle (Wagner).

The reason Coral Castle was built was for Ed’s former fiancé Agnes Scuffs. He moved away from his home country to America in hopes to get over his heartbreak when Agnes called off the wedding leaving Ed completely heartbroken. His broken heart couldn’t be fixed so he started to build Coral Castle in hopes that Agnes would take him back and the little Latvian man dedicated the rest of his life to building this for her, but it quickly became an obsession. He invited her in countless letters to come visit the castle and take him back, but his dream sadly never came true. 

Coral Castle is just a handful of places that have a mystery of how they were built or how they appeared there. But this one stands out in its own way Edward Leedskalnin dedicated his whole life into his love story and built a quite beautiful and mysterious now Museum that is toured and tells his love story to many tourists and local residents of Florida.  

Works Cited: 

Dunning, Brian. “Coral Castle.” Skeptoid. 2009.

McLachlan, Sean. “Coral Castle: Testament to a Broken Heart.” Gadling.2012.

Radford, Benjamin. “Mystery of the Coral Castle Explained.” Live Science. 2013.

Wagner, Stephen. “The Secrets of Coral Castle.” About Entertainment.n.d.

“9 Ton Gate- Megalitihic at Coral Castle, Florida.” Phenomal Travel Videos. 2015. 

Links for further research: 

Coral Castle Museum 

http://coralcastle.com

This website explains a lot more about how to museum and everything you need to know about Coral Castle 

Road Side America

http://www.roadsideamerica.com/story/2056

This website goes into the 

Mystery Pile Ancient Mysteries 

http://www.mysterypile.com/coral-castle.php

This website has great information about Coral Castle as well as good photos of the property