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The Cardiff Giant was one of the most famous hoaxes in United States history. It was a 10-foot-tall (3.0 m) purported
"petrified man" uncovered on October 16, 1869, by workers digging a well behind the barn of William C. "Stub" Newell
in Cardiff, New York. Both it and an unauthorized copy made by P.T. Barnum are still on display. More information from
Wikipedia
From History.com a complete description and images of the "giant".
Original link to The New York Public Library Steroscopic view is longer available 8/3/20
VIEW IN CARDIFF GLEN.
Near Fort Dodge, Iowa.
This is the Gypsum Quarry from which was taken the block out of which
the original "Cardiff Giant" was carved. The block was taken to Chicago, the
"Giant" carved, and then shipped to the point in New York which gave it its
name, where it was buried in a barn log, and subsquently "discovered". The
perpetrators of the improsture are well remembered by old residents of Fort
Dodge. Their names were George Hull and H. B. Martin. This is presented in
rememberance of the generous response of Alonzo S. Weed, A.M.
to an appeal for aid for our Brethern and Churches rendered needy by the
scourge of grasshoppers (or locusts) in the West in 1873.
John Hogarth Lozier,
(Northwest Iowa Conference)
Sec'y Relief Commission.
"Zion's Herald" Fund (hand written at bottom left)
Citation: View in Cardiff Glen, near Fort Dodge, Iowa., (1873) (direct link no longer available 8/3/20
Digital Collections, The New York Public Library, Astor, Lennox, and Tilden Foundation
Additional Links
Chapter 22 from "The History of Fort Dodge"
The Museum of Hoaxes
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