Did You Know America's Greatest Hoax Started in Iowa?

When you think of the most famous hoax in American history, your mind might jump straight to the legendary "War of the Worlds" broadcast of 1938, where Orson Welles convinced everyone listening on the radio that the US was being invaded by aliens from the planet Mars, armed with death rays.

The historic broadcast showed just how fast panic and misinformation could spread across the entire country.

But nearly 70 years before Welles took to the airwaves, Americans fell hook, line, and sinker for an even BIGGER, and downright more bizarre lie. A lie that had its roots within the state of Iowa.

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The year was 1866. George Hull, a cigar manufacturer from Binghamton, New York, had traveled west to Iowa to visit his sister in the small town of Ackley. It was here that Hull (a devout atheist) happened to attend a Methodist revival service.

He got locked into a heated debate with the revivalist preacher, the Reverend Mr. Turk. The argument centered on Genesis 6:4, where the Bible states: “There were giants in the earth in those days.”

The preacher insisted the passage was literal history; actual giants once roamed the Earth. Hull found this preposterous. But rather than walking away, Hull’s spite got the better of him. He was a cynical man, convinced that people’s faith made them incredibly gullible. As he later recounted, the idea struck him that night to create a giant, bury it, and trick the very people who took those ancient verses literally.

If they wanted giants in the earth, well, George Hull, a lifelong charlatan, would give them one.

Hull was a petty guy, and he spent months plotting his revenge. He needed a stone that looked like a petrified person (not easy), but was also soft enough to carve fairly easily. This is where the Hawkeye State comes into play. Because he just so happened to find the ideal spot in Fort Dodge, Iowa.

In 1868, Hull returned to Iowa, arriving in Fort Dodge specifically to secure the stone. He located a perfect 5-ton block of dark-veined gypsum. The quarry was operated by local Iowans who were curious about what this sophisticated New Yorker needed with such a massive, monolithic slab.

So, Hull spun a convincing enough cover story to win them over: he said he was purchasing the stone for a monument to President Abraham Lincoln, which he intended to erect in Washington, D.C. Satisfied with Hull's patriotic explanation, the local crews helped him cut and lift the massive, heavy slab.

To bring his scheme to life, Hull shipped the massive gypsum block from Fort Dodge to a stonecutter in Chicago. The sculptors carved an 10-foot-tall, 3,000-pound giant, even using needle-pointed hammers to simulate skin pores. To make the stone look ancient, Hull treated it with stain and acid before shipping it to his cousin’s farm in Cardiff, New York, where they buried it in secret.

A year later, in October 1869, Hull hired two unsuspecting laborers to dig a well on the property. They struck stone, unearthing the "Cardiff Giant."

The discovery became an instant sensation. Hull put up a tent over the pit and charged 50 cents a head, raking in thousands as thousands of eager believers and tourists flocked to see the petrified giant... Just like this day and age, people tend to trust almost anything that their two eyes show them.

But George Hull's lie didn't last long. Scholars and geologists quickly noticed that the gypsum dissolved easily in wet soil and that tool marks were still visible. When showman P.T. Barnum tried to buy the giant and was turned down, he simply carved a replica and claimed his was the real one.

By December 1869, under pressure from scientists and lawsuits, Hull finally confessed. His grand spite project proved two things: people will believe almost anything, and a petty argument in Iowa managed to pull off one of the greatest hoaxes in American history.

These days, you can find the Cardiff Giant at the Farmers' Museum in Cooperstown, New York. So, if you're ever heading to the Baseball Hall of Fame (also in Cooperstown), make a day of it and check out the absolutely fake giant that was helped out by the dark-veined gypsum of Iowa.