A 10-foot fake stone man fooled thousands in 1869 — and when P.T. Barnum couldn't buy the hoax, he built a copy of the fake and claimed that one was the real giant.
In 1868, New York tobacconist George Hull, furious after losing a religious argument about biblical giants, commissioned a 10-foot 4-inch figure to be secretly carved from gypsum in Iowa. He shipped it to his cousin's farm in Cardiff, New York, and had it buried in the dead of night.
Nearly a year later, workers 'discovered' the figure while digging a well. Newell erected a tent and charged fifty cents a viewing. Hundreds arrived daily — nearby hotels and restaurants reported more visitors than they'd ever seen. Some believed it was a petrified prehistoric man; others believed it was a genuine ancient statue.
Scientists quickly identified it as a fraud. Yale paleontologist Othniel Marsh called it 'a most decided humbug,' pointing out that soluble gypsum would have dissolved long ago if it had actually been buried for centuries, and yet fresh tool marks were still clearly visible on the surface.
Hull sold his share for $23,000 to a syndicate that moved the giant to Syracuse. When P.T. Barnum offered $50,000 to buy it and was refused, he simply hired a man to covertly copy its shape and built his own replica — which he then exhibited as the real giant, calling the Cardiff original a fake.
The syndicate sued Barnum for calling their fake a fake. The judge dismissed the case, ruling he could hardly protect the authenticity of something already proven fraudulent. The phrase 'there's a sucker born every minute' — widely attributed to Barnum — was actually said by the syndicate's leader while watching crowds pay to see Barnum's copy of a known hoax.
Hull eventually confessed publicly, saying he had designed the giant to expose the gullibility of religious fundamentalists who took the biblical account of giants literally. The original Cardiff Giant is still on display at the Farmers' Museum in Cooperstown, New York.