On this day in 1869, The Cardiff Giant, one of the most famous American hoaxes, is “discovered”.

It was a 3.0 m roughly 13,600 kg purported “petrified man”, uncovered on October 16, 1869 by workers digging a well behind the barn of William C. “Stub” Newell, in Cardiff, New York.

He covered the giant with a tent and it soon became an attraction site. Both it and an unauthorized copy made by P. T. Barnum are still being displayed.

P. T. Barnum’s is on display at Marvin’s Marvelous Mechanical Museum in Farmington Hills, Michigan.