The Cardiff Giant Exhibit pays tribute to the greatest hoax of the 19th Century and we are proud to carry on the tradition!
The original giant was quarried in Fort Dodge of gypsum rock in 1868 and later "accidentally" dug up on a New York State farm. The greatest scientific minds of the day pondered its origins. Was it a petrified specimen of some unknown giant race of men, or the creation of an ancient, highly developed civilization?
Crafty old George Hull new very well what it was. It was his idea to begin with and he reaped the profits as train loads of curious onlookers flocked to gawk at the giant and speculate on its beginnings. When P.T. Barnum was unable to buy the giant, he had another sculpted and advertised it as "the Original Cardiff Giant". Some other entrepreneur built one of paper-mache and billed it as "the original".
Well, we had the "original" (Hull's original fake, not one of the other two fakes) in Fort Dodge earlier in this century, but lost it back to New York. So we had another one made of good old Fort Dodge gypsum, mined in the same quarry as the original (the original original), and it is now on display at the museum. So come and see the "Original Cardiff Giant", not that fake one in New York! Honest!
Fort Features
