The Cardiff Giant remains one of the most sensational frauds ever perpetrated on the American public.

Since being “discovered” on an Upstate New York farm in 1869, thousands have visited the 10-foot stone figure that now calls Cooperstown home.

Long before the internet and 24-hour news cycles, the claim that a “giant” had been unearthed at a rural farm in Central New York captivated newspaper readers from coast to coast in 1869.

When ultimate showman P.T. Barnum got involved, the sensational story of the “mysterious giant” spread even further.

It all started at the Stub Newell farm on Oct. 16, 1869. The Cardiff farm in Onondaga County was unspectacular in every way, but Newell and his son-in-law, George Hull, were a couple of pranksters, and they devised what they thought would be the ultimate joke.

They would create a 10-foot-tall man made out of white gypsum, make him as life-like as possible, bury him on a hill on the farm, and then later “discover” this mystery man, unearth him, and proclaim that you have found the remains of a “giant who once walked among men.”

A Chicago stonecutter carved the behemoth from gypsum, including detailed facial features and using needle spikes to create hundreds of tiny “human” pores across the body.

When the creature was finished, they hauled the 3,000-pound petrified giant to the top of a hill on the farm. At a predetermined time, Hull announced to friends he was heading up the hill to find a suitable spot for a water well. What did he “find” when he first started digging? A giant stone man, of course.

The word went out about the findings over at the old Newell place, and crowds soon came to see this miracle man. Visitors poked, prodded, gawked and were awed by the giant.

With crowds growing uncontrollable, the figure — now dubbed the “Cardiff Giant” or “Onondaga Giant” — was moved to Syracuse, where it went on public display Nov. 8, 1869, at the Bastable Arcade. Thousands paid 50 cents each to view the giant.

Of course, such a preposterous claim of the giant’s finding couldn’t withstand the research and examinations of the professionals who inspected him, and the prank was revealed to the public.

Still, the Cardiff Giant had fans, including entrepreneur Barnum, perhaps the most famous showman of his day, who saw dollar signs. He commissioned a replica of the Cardiff Giant and toured it to large, paying crowds, including New York City.

So where is the petrified man today? Well, as generations of school children around Central New York know, this sad-looking man of stone rests eternally at the wonderful Farmers’ Museum in Cooperstown.

It is a rite of passage for school kids of a certain age to take a field trip to see “the greatest hoax ever perpetuated upon man” at the museum in Otsego County.

This writer went in the 1960s, my kids went in the 1990s, and my grandchildren are going this summer.

The story never ends.

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