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1869

The Cardiff Giant: The Ten-Foot ‘Petrified Man’ Who Was Carved in Chicago

November 8, 2026November 6, 2026 by Tommy Hayes
The Cardiff Giant on display at the Farmers' Museum in Cooperstown, New York

About 5 min readIn October 1869, workers digging a well in Cardiff, New York, unearthed a ten-foot ‘petrified man’. Within two months its maker, George Hull, had confessed: the giant was carved gypsum, buried a year earlier as a hoax.

Categories Explained at Last Tags 1869, Cardiff Giant, Explained, George Hull, hoax, P. T. Barnum Leave a comment

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Mysteries is an archive of phenomena that still lack a settled explanation. We tell these stories with evidence first: what was seen, what was recorded, what can be checked, and what remains unknown.

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