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The Cardiff Giant, one of the most famous hoaxes in American history, was a 10-foot-tall "petrified man" discovered October 16, 1869 by workers digging a well behind the barn of William C. "Stub" Newell in Cardiff, New York. It is so famous that both it and an unauthorized copy made by P.T. Barnum are still on display.
The Giant was the creation of a New York tobacconist named George Hull. Hull, an atheist, who decided to create the giant after an argument with a fundamentalist minister Mr. Turk about a passage in Genesis that stated that there were giants who once lived on earth.
Hull hired men to carve out a 11-foot-long block of gypsum at Fort Dodge, Iowa, telling them it was intended for a monument of Abraham Lincoln in New York. He shipped the block to Chicago, where he hired a German stonecutter to carve it into likeness of man and swore him to secrecy. Then he transported the giant by rail to the farm of William Newell, his cousin, in November 1868. He had then spent $2,600 on the hoax.
When the giant had been buried for a year, Newell hired two men, Gideon Emmons and Henry Nichols, ostensiblly to dig a well. When they found the Giant, one of them has been attributed to saying "I declare, some old Indian has been buried here!"
There is also a replica of the giant at the Fort Dodge, IA Historical Fort Museum. The gypsum out of which the original giant was carved was mined in Fort Dodge.
The Cardiff Giant, one of the most famous hoaxes in American history, was a 10-foot-tall "petrified man" discovered October 16, 1869 by workers digging a well behind the barn of William C. "Stub" Newell in Cardiff, New York. It is so famous that both it and an unauthorized copy made by P.T. Barnum are still on display.
The Giant was the creation of a New York tobacconist named George Hull. Hull, an atheist, who decided to create the giant after an argument with a fundamentalist minister Mr. Turk about a passage in Genesis that stated that there were giants who once lived on earth.
Hull hired men to carve out a 11-foot-long block of gypsum at Fort Dodge, Iowa, telling them it was intended for a monument of Abraham Lincoln in New York. He shipped the block to Chicago, where he hired a German stonecutter to carve it into likeness of man and swore him to secrecy. Then he transported the giant by rail to the farm of William Newell, his cousin, in November 1868. He had then spent $2,600 on the hoax.
When the giant had been buried for a year, Newell hired two men, Gideon Emmons and Henry Nichols, ostensiblly to dig a well. When they found the Giant, one of them has been attributed to saying "I declare, some old Indian has been buried here!"
There is also a replica of the giant at the Fort Dodge, IA Historical Fort Museum. The gypsum out of which the original giant was carved was mined in Fort Dodge.
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Tags:
display , crazy , famous , statue , giant , flood , atheist , cardiff , barnum , greed , hoax , fort dodge , gypsum , petrified man , newell , george hull
display , crazy , famous , statue , giant , flood , atheist , cardiff , barnum , greed , hoax , fort dodge , gypsum , petrified man , newell , george hull
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