The Cardiff Giant
Workers digging a well on a New York farm uncovered a three-metre stone man, and crowds paid to see the 'petrified giant'.
What was reported
In October 1869, men hired to dig a well on a farm near Cardiff, New York, struck stone and uncovered an enormous human figure, more than three metres tall, lying as if asleep. Word spread that a petrified giant from Biblical times had been found.
Within days, thousands of people were paying to see it in a tent. Some experts called it an ancient statue, others a real fossil. A showman offered a fortune for it, and when he was refused, he had a copy made and exhibited that instead.
Explanations offered
It was a hoax: a cigar maker had the figure carved from a block of gypsum, stained to look old, and buried it a year earlier, partly to mock people who took the Bible's giants literally. He confessed in December 1869. The giant is now displayed at the Farmers' Museum in Cooperstown, New York.
- When
- Dug up in October 1869
- Where
- Cardiff, New York, USA
- Witnesses
- Thousands of paying visitors
- Status
- Hoax
Famous cases are real, widely reported events. Each file sets out what witnesses said and the explanations that have been offered, without taking a side.
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