Zachary Sorensen
Chicago, Illinois, United States

On the morning of October 16, 1869, two laborers, Gideon Emmons and Henry Nicols, began the back-breaking work of digging a new well at the farm of William “Stub” Newell in Cardiff, New York.¹ After removing several feet of earth, the two struck something hard with their tools. Within a few hours they exhumed an extraordinary find—a ten-foot colossal stone figure of a man. Dubbed “the Cardiff Giant,” the discovery quickly became a national sensation and, in time, came to be regarded as one of the greatest archaeological hoaxes in American history.

Thousands of people soon flocked to the Newell farm to get a glimpse of the discovery. Speculation to its origin ran rampant amongst the onlookers. There were those who believed the figure was the “petrified” body of a biblical giant as described in Genesis 6:4. Others theorized it was a relic of some lost civilization or a statue carved by early missionaries to impress the local Native Americans.² William Newell was happy to entertain all of their theories; he began charging visitors fifty cents apiece to see the giant and amassed thousands of dollars from their curiosity.

As attention surrounding the giant grew, so did a slew of offers to purchase him. The giant was eventually sold to a syndicate from Syracuse, New York, who paid a sum of $37,500 for the behemoth.² They moved it from Cardiff to Syracuse and put it on display for those willing to pay admission. The giant even drew the attention of famed showman P.T. Barnum, who offered to purchase the statue from the investors for $50,000. His offer refused, Barnum commissioned a replica to be cast in plaster. Barnum displayed his copy at his museum in New York City, claiming it to be the original. In time, his facsimile drew more visitors than the original.³

From the time of its discovery, the Cardiff Giant was not without its skeptics. Andrew Dickson White, the first president of Cornell University, believed the giant to be an obvious fake and noted that there was no logical reason to dig a well at the location of its discovery on the Newell property.¹ Yale paleontologist Othniel C. Marsh, another skeptic of the giant, noted that the gypsum the giant was carved from would not hold such fresh tool marks after centuries buried in the ground.² Even some of the general public were wary of the giant’s authenticity. By December, the true origin of the Cardiff Giant was revealed by its mastermind—George Hull.

George Hull, a tobacco salesman from New York, confessed to the media on December 10, 1869, that the giant was a hoax.⁴ He would later say his inspiration came from an argument he had with a Methodist minister by the name of Henry Turk over whether the Bible should be taken literally. Hull, an atheist, objected to Reverend Turk’s scriptural literalism, finding it absurd that he would believe that giants had ever existed.² He concocted the hoax in 1868, having the stone quarried in Iowa, then transported to Chicago where masons carved the figure, Hull himself posing naked as the subject.¹ The statue was then moved to the Newell farm and the stage set for its “discovery.” Hull explained the hoax was an attempt to expose the gullibility of the American public. He may have been correct; the Cardiff Giant still garnered much speculation and remained a popular attraction long after its inauthenticity was revealed.

The Cardiff Giant wasn’t just a hoax but a commentary on belief, science, and media. It showed how easily people could be swayed by spectacle and desire, and how even the most absurd claims could find believers when wrapped in a convincing story. It remains one of the biggest archaeological hoaxes in American history. For anyone interested in viewing the giant themself, it is currently on display at the Farmer’s Museum in Cooperstown, New York, where it remains a quirky reminder of America’s long fascination with hoaxes, absurdity, and spectacle.

References

1. Dukes, Hunter. “A Very Tall Tale: Photograph of the Cardiff Giant (ca. 1869).” The Public Domain Review. https://publicdomainreview.org/collection/cardiff-giant/
2. “Today in History: The Cardiff Giant and CNY’s Biggest Hoax.” Onondaga Historical Association. https://www.cnyhistory.org/2014/10/cardiff-giant/
3. Rose, Mark. “When Giants Roamed the Earth.” Archaeology 58, no. 6, November/December 2005. Accessed via the Internet Archive. https://web.archive.org/web/20091217020128/http://www.archaeology.org/0511/etc/giants.html
4. “An Alleged Revelation by Hull, the Giant Maker”. Buffalo Express. December 13, 1869. Accessed via Newspapers.com. https://www.newspapers.com/article/buffalo-courier-express-an-alleged-revel/68874501/