Cardiff Giant

Photo
The Cardiff Giant being exhumed during October 1869.
The Cardiff Giant displayed at the Bastable in Syracuse, NY, circa 1869.

The Cardiff Giant was one of the most famous archaeological hoaxes in American history. It was a 10-foot-tall (3.0 m), roughly 3,000 pound[1] 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. He covered the giant with a tent and it soon became an attraction site.[1] Both it and an unauthorized copy made by P. T. Barnum are still being displayed. P.T. Barnum's is on display at Marvin's Marvelous Mechanical Museum in Farmington Hills, Michigan.

  1. ^ a b "This Month in History: The Cardiff Giant". Onondaga Historical Association. 2014-10-16. Retrieved 2022-02-27.