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Estero, FL Koreshan State Historic Site

3800 Corkscrew Road, Estero, Florida, 33928, USA

Koreshan State Historic Site

It took me a while to understand why America is the land of conspiracy theories and bizarre Christ cults. Adventurers, snake oil salesmen, free spirits, religiously persecuted groups and the fearless or desperate made their way to the promised land across the Atlantic and founded a modern civilization. Largely freed from all the rules of the monarchs in old Europe, people with enough will to survive could believe in whatever they wanted - and still do today.

America is thus also the birthplace of the modern Hollow World Theory1, which is still being colocated today by a special group of skeptics (or awakened ones, as they like to think of themselves).

The idea is that we do not live on the globe, but inside. Even Adolf Hitler and his Nazi leadership - stupefied by the intoxication of power, thought the Hollow World Theory was within the realm of possibility2 and sent an expedition to explore this fever dream for espionage purposes. I think, therefore still the fascination in Aluhuträgerkreisen for this absurd theory comes. That and UFOs.

Cyrus Reed Teed, born in 1839 in New York, was a medical doctor and homeopath who was interested in alchemy and organized experiments with high electric voltages. In 1869 Reed had an accident, received a stroke and became unconscious. In this state, God appeared to him in the form of a beautiful young woman who must have explained to him that instead of living on, we live in the hollow interior of the earth.

Teed changed his name to Koresh (Hebrew for Cyrus) and wrote the foundations for his movement The Koresheans, which began around 1888 in Chicago. Over the years there were several small groups in various other parts of the United States.

In 1894 Teed and his followers set out for Florida to build New Jerusalem. He purchased the land from a German emigrant named Gustave Damkohler, who had come to America from Thuringia, via Australia. Dammkohler must have had some sympathy for Teed's movement and thus gave them some land, which was converted into a park, with workshops, bakery, grocery store, and living quarters for the members.

The Koreshans brought quite a bit of progress to the area. They were well equipped with the printing presses and machinery they transported thousands of miles from Chicago to the southern tip of Florida. With their generators, the Hollow World community introduced electricity to the region.

The Koreshans' heyday was from 1903 to 1908, when over 250 members resided in the colony. Interestingly, there were many women in his entourage who also guided the fortunes of the community. Attracted by Teed's views on equality between men and women and perhaps his charismatic personality, many a wife left her husband and followed Koresh3.

In 1906, a fight broke out between Koreshans and residents at Ft. Myers, and Teed tried to break up the brawl but was injured and jailed.

Over the following months his condition deteriorated and he died on the winter solstice of December 22, 1908. Since his teachings included rebirth, his followers believed he would be resurrected at Christmas and lead them all to the Promised Land. Instead, he began to stink and local authorities ordered his burial. Some of his followers waited another 13 days, but Cyrus Reed Teed remained dead. This began the slow decline of the group, who began to doubt his teachings.

Dammkohler lost faith a year earlier and headed to Alaska to find gold.

Because of the vows of celibacy, there was no new blood for the group and the membership melted drastically.

In 1940, Hedwig Michel, a German, fled the Nazis and, learning of the Koreshans in Germany and probably finding their movement quite attractive, she joined the rest of the small group and became the last witness and leader of the cult.

At the latest after the moon landing also the remaining rest, a handful of old ladies, came the doubt whether the belief in a hollow world can still be maintained.

At the beginning of the 60's Michels handed over parts of the Koreshan land to Florida and so it was preserved as a state park. Michel died at the age of 90, in 1982 and was buried in the grounds.

Today, as a state park, the Koreshan Unity site can be visited and explored by anyone. The individual sites are preserved and serve as an outdoor museum. Writings, photos and a lot of documents can be found in the Virtual Catalog of the Koreshan Unity Website.

  1. https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Innenweltkosmos ↩︎

  2. Nazis and the Hollow Earth ↩︎

  3. San Francisco Call 13 November 1905 — California Digital Newspaper Collection ↩︎

geschrieben von Marcus Obst Park Cult USA
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