Cold Open

It’s October 16th, 1869 on a farm in the village of Cardiff, New York.

Agricultural laborer Henry Nichols stabs the ground with a shovel, pushing down with his foot and levering up a chunk of soil out of a three-foot-deep hole. He straightens up and tosses the dirt into a growing pile beside him. His back aches and his arms are burning.

For the past several hours, Henry and another laborer have been digging a new well shaft. It’s hard work, and right now Henry is craving a pitcher of beer that the farm’s owner promised when they were finished.

But they are nowhere near done with their task. The next time Henry cuts into the ground with his shovel, the metal edge strikes a stone. Henry rolls his eyes. If there are rocks in the soil, their tough job just got even tougher. Henry tries to dig around the stone, but it’s huge—he can’t find where it ends.

He calls his colleague over, and together they scrape the soil away from the pale rock. But this is no ordinary stone. As they clear the dirt away, it gradually takes the shape of a human foot.

Henry drops his shovel in shock. He isn’t sure what they’ve found—but he does know that this macabre discovery gives him the creeps.

After Henry reports his grisly find, farm owner William Newell will help excavate the area. Together, they’ll uncover a 10-foot-tall stone figure that farm owner William will confidently declare is a petrified giant dating back to Biblical times.

The Cardiff Giant, as their discovery will be named, will cause a sensation and be hailed as proof of the literal truth of the Bible. But it will soon be exposed as a clever fake, and William will be unmasked as one of the conspirators behind the hoax — but not before he makes a fortune off the supposedly lucky discovery of the Cardiff Giant on October 16th, 1869.

Introduction

From Noiser and Airship, I’m Lindsay Graham and this is History Daily.

History is made every day. On this podcast—every day—we tell the true stories of the people and events that shaped our world.

Today is October 16th, 1869: The Unearthing of the Cardiff Giant.

Act One

It’s 1866 in Ackley, a small town in Iowa, three years before a fake petrified giant will be discovered on a farm in upstate New York.

George Hull crosses his arms as he listens to a Methodist preacher rattle on in his brother-in-law’s general store. George is a New York tobacco merchant, visiting family here in Iowa. He hasn’t been here long, but already George misses home.

He loves living in New York. It’s a fast-growing metropolis where modern ideas quickly take hold. So, whenever George is in Iowa, it feels like he’s traveled back in time. Here, traditional religious ideas still hold very strong.

And today, George is carrying a new edition of Charles Darwin’s groundbreaking book On the Origin of Species, which outlines the theories of evolution and natural selection. A few minutes ago, the Methodist minister spotted the book in his hand and began to rail against Darwin’s ideas. Now, George just wants the pompous minister to pay for his goods and leave. But instead, the preacher is confidently declaring that giants once lived on the Earth.

George just shakes his head. In response, the preacher pulls a Bible from his pocket and reads aloud from Genesis chapter six, verse four. 

Then the minister asks George whether he doubts the word of God. George replies that he doesn't take everything written in the Bible literally. But this is not the answer the minister wants to hear. George looks to his brother-in-law behind the counter, hoping that he’ll back him up. But instead, his brother-in-law profusely apologizes to the minister for George’s mistaken ideas. Meanwhile, George heads outside, embarrassed that even his family still believes in what George thinks are old-fashioned, superstitions.

And for the next two years, George simmers over this meeting with the Methodist minister. Eventually, he decides to do something about it. He’ll fool people into believing that one of the giants the minister believes in has been found—then he’ll reveal it as a fake, proving how easy religion can mislead people.

During the summer of 1868, George starts to put his plan into action. He purchases an 11-foot-long block of gypsum and has it shipped to a stonemason in Chicago. There, George reveals his plan and swears the mason to secrecy. He has the block carved into the shape of a man—but one twice the size of a typical American. Next, the statue is boxed up and transported by train and wagon to a farm in New York belonging to George’s cousin, William Newell. Over the course of a few days, George and William bury the statue in a corner of the farm.

Eleven months later, William hires two laborers to dig a well in the exact location that he and George buried the statue. When the laborers discover the rock figure, William feigns surprise, declaring that it must be the remains of a giant that lived in Biblical times. According to William, the giant’s remains must have turned to stone because minerals from nearby swamp water seeped into the body before it could decompose.

That night, the two laborers regale the community with the news of their discovery. The next day, hundreds of people track to William’s fields to see it. Realizing there’s an opportunity to make some cash off this trick, William erects a tent over the statue and begins charging admission. The roads and lanes leading to William’s farm grow crammed with buggies and carriages from across the state. New Yorkers are eager to pay their 50 cents to catch a sight of the Cardiff Giant. Church leaders hail the giant as proof of the veracity of the Bible, saying it must have died in the great flood of Noah.

Then after a few days, William gets an offer he can’t refuse. A consortium of local businessmen headed by David Hannum pays him $23,000 for the petrified giant. Within days, the 3,000-pound statue is excavated, lifted from its hole, and taken to Syracuse in upstate New York.

There, the Cardiff Giant will go on display and attract even more visitors. And among them will be the most famous showman of the age, who will turn the saga of the bogus Biblical creature on its head by creating a forgery of a fake.

Act Two

It’s early November 1869 at a showground in Syracuse New York, a few weeks after the discovery of the Cardiff Giant.

PT Barnum pays his entrance fee and pushes through a tent flap into a small, gloomy auditorium. He takes a seat near the front as the rest of the audience files in hushed in anticipation.

Thirty-four years ago, Barnum began his career in show business. He also charged customers 50 cents to see a blind and paralyzed former slave who he claimed was the 161-year-old former nurse to George Washington. Impressed by how easy it was to scam gullible New Yorkers out of their money, he created Barnum’s American Museum on Broadway. He stuffed the building with a host of curiosities, including a supposed mermaid and an actor with dwarfism marketed as General Tom Thumb. Now, Barnum is here in Syracuse on the trail of a new attraction, one that he hopes will keep New Yorkers coming through his museum doors.

At the front of the auditorium, a showman hypes the audience with a story about the discovery of the Cardiff Giant and the mystery surrounding the Biblical creature. When the showman gives a signal, the lights are turned up and the Cardiff Giant is revealed—a large stone figure on a wooden platform. It’s so well preserved that the audience can see the giant’s ribs, Adam’s apple, even its faint smile. Crowd gasps in shock before bursting into applause.

From the audience's reaction, Barnum is satisfied that the Cardiff Giant will be a suitable addition to his museum, so he seeks out David Hannum – the local businessman who bought the statue from William Newell. After introducing himself, Barnum offers $50,000 – more than double the amount David paid to purchase the petrified giant. But David thinks he’s going to earn far more than that in ticket sales, and so has no hesitation in turning Barnum down.

Barnum though is too wily an operator to spend his time negotiating. Instead, he has one of his men sneak into the tent and create a wax cast of the Cardiff Giant. Back in New York City, Barnum’s staff create a replica. And within days of his return, Barnum announces a new display in his museum: the genuine Cardiff Giant. He urges his customers not to be fooled by the other petrified figure in upstate New York. He assures them that one is fake; but his, is the real giant. And many believe him. Before long, a long line of New Yorkers snakes along Broadway, lining up to see the highly-publicized Cardiff Giant.

But David Hannum doesn’t take well to Barnum’s replica drawing bigger crowds than his own original Cardiff Giant. So, he files a lawsuit against Barnum, alleging that the showman’s petrified giant is fake and demanding that it be taken off display.

As part of the legal wrangling, both sides hire experts to argue that the opposing gentleman's giant is not real. A renowned Yale paleontologist writes a scathing report about David Hannum’s Syracuse giant, questioning why there are fresh tool marks on the stone. The report concludes that the original Cardiff Giant is “a most decided humbug.”

The paleontologist's critiques are a revelation. Of course, Barnum has known all along that his giant is fake. But this report convinces him that David’s must be too. The American public’s suspicions are further aroused when witnesses swear they saw a mysterious, heavy box arriving at William Newell’s farm the year before. They start to question why William wanted a well dug on that exact part of his property.

Realizing he’s about to be exposed, the originator of the plot comes clean. George Hull confesses to a newspaper reporter that he had the statue made and buried to demonstrate the foolishness and gullibility of Christians who readily accept the literal truth of the Bible.

With this confession, David Hannum’s case against Barnum collapses. The judge rules that Barnum cannot be litigated against for making a fake copy of a fake giant. But still, the American public doesn’t seem to care that both petrified figures are fake.

In the weeks following George’s admission and the judge’s ruling, the lines outside Barnum’s American Museum are as long as ever—and the attraction they still want to see is the now-disproven Cardiff Giant. The forgery has become as big a story as the original find, and the statue is affectionately called ‘Old Hoaxey.’

The saga of the Cardiff Giant will leave Barnum with a healthy profit, to the disdain of scheme's mastermind George Hull. Irritated at missing out on a fortune himself, George will attempt a second act of trickery. He will become a serial fraudster—and this time, he will be motivated purely by profit.

Act Three

It’s spring 1877 in Beulah, Colorado; seven years after the Cardiff Giant was revealed to be fake.

George Hull pats down the top of a recently refilled hole in the ground and grins at his companion— fossil collector William Conant. William is George’s newest co-conspirator, and together they’ve just set in motion George’s latest scam.

After the Cardiff Giant was unmasked as a hoax, George spent years testing various techniques to create a more convincing fake petrified body. Once satisfied with the result of his experiments, he fashioned a human figure out of rock dust, clay, plaster, and animal bones. Then, he added a tail, hoping to trick scientists into thinking that the creature was a common ancestor of humans and monkeys.

George cooked the statue in a kiln for several days before bringing it here, to the badlands of Colorado. He intends for it to be discovered among the region’s fossil beds. But thanks to the Cardiff Giant, George is too infamous to carry out the scheme on his own, so he let amateur fossil hunter William in on the plot.

Now, George is showing William exactly where the new fake petrified body is buried, and William assures George that he’ll remember the location.

Three months later, when George is back in New York, William pretends to stumble across the stone body on a fossil hunting expedition. And just like the Cardiff Giant, the petrified figure becomes a local sensation, soon named the Solid Muldoon after a popular wrestler. Having learned his lesson the last time, George leaves William strict instructions not to sell the fake body. William follows orders and displays it in towns and cities across America, sharing all the proceeds with George.

But without PT Barnum’s showmanship, the Solid Muldoon doesn’t capture the nation’s imagination the same way that the Cardiff Giant did. And George doesn’t have much time to cash in.

Because it’s not long before an acquaintance who’s in on the scam leaks the secret that the Solid Muldoon is the work of George Hull, the infamous creator of the Cardiff Giant. And when the news breaks, people quickly lose interest. The Solid Muldoon disappears, never to be seen again.

But the stone statue that started George’s career as a hoaxer—the Cardiff Giant—will pass through several hands until it’s put on display at the Farmers’ Museum in New York. It remains there today and still draws interested onlookers, just as it did more than 150 years ago after the fake giant was discovered by farm laborers on October 16th, 1869.

Outro

Next on History Daily. October 17th, 1945. A labor demonstration in Buenos Aires demands the liberation of the country’s ousted and imprisoned vice president, Juan Domingo Perón, giving rise to a new populist movement known as Peronism.

From Noiser and Airship, this is History Daily, hosted, edited, and executive produced by me, Lindsay Graham.

Audio editing by Muhammad Shahzaib.

Sound design by Mollie Baack.

Music by Lindsay Graham.

This episode is written and researched by Scott Reeves.

Executive Producers are Alexandra Currie-Buckner for Airship, and Pascal Hughes for Noiser.