Cardiff Giant Hoax

Glenn Branch

The Cardiff Giant hoax involved a large stone figure, advertised as a petrified giant man. The Giant is of anthropological interest both as a classic example of a hoax and as a source of insight regarding the interaction of popular and scientific conceptions of human prehistory. On October 16, 1869, workers digging a well on William “Stub” Newell's farm outside Cardiff, New York, exhumed a gray stone figure of a giant man with contorted limbs and a serene facial expression. According to a contemporary advertisement, the Giant was 10′ 4.5″ (about 3.2 m) long and weighed 2,990 pounds (about 1,350 kg). Newell exhibited the Giant, charging 50¢ admission, for 2 weeks, and then sold a majority interest in ...

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