<HTML>Also, on a side note...
although these pictures show Ed hanging around on the blocks and such, there are affidavits to attest to the fact that he NEVER actually DID any of the lifting when people were watching. All vertical movement ceased immediately when people were nearby.
For example, Bob Biggers, a "jovial, easy-going man, and member of a pioneer family", is the man who drove the trailer between the old location and the new location:
"Bob told me Ed would never work until after he had left... Bob chuckled and said, 'Ed doesn't need to worry about me learning any of his secrets. I'm not going into competition with him'."
And from the July 1939 issue of The Redland District News:
"Ed is doing a colossal job of moving, but he wants no help, thank you. He will decline your neighborly gesture, courteously, but firmly."
Well, if he's just hoisting it up with the chains and pulleys, why stop? Safety reasons? Poppycock. You just ask people to stand back. Actually, it was much safer for him to lift when people WERE around... as it says in one statement:
"It was necessary for him to use all the safety precaustions available, and not to take any chances. If an accident occurred, causing him to be pinned down, there was always a chance that a visitor might not come by to see him for several days."
These are from the book entitled, "Mr. Can't is Dead" by Orval Irwin. Orval was a boy of 14 when he watched Ed build the castle. He self-published this book, complete with photos just like the ones "discovered" recently, in 1996.
Orville's accounts of Ed moving the blocks sideways using rollers and a hoist are very accurate, and also his quarrying practices are completely documented.
His account of the VERTICAL movement of the blocks, however, has been shown to be completely inadequate. He said the same thing you have been saying, Derek/Don/Greg... that since there were hoists on the site, that must be how he did it.
But it wasn't. It wasn't, because it wasn't possible for that equipment to do this job.
Anthony</HTML>
