Why was the Cardiff Giant a hoax?

Answer 1

A man named George Hull of Cardiff New York, an atheist, had gotten into a heated argument with a fundamentalist minister over a passage in Genesis that said that giants once lived on earth. He was determined to make a fool of the minister and put together a plan. He purchased the 10 foot block of gypsum in Fort Dodge Iowa, saying that is was destined for a Lincoln Memorial in New York City. He had it shipped to Chicago where he hired stone cutter, Edward Burghardt, to carve the statue and swore him to secrecy. In 1868, he had it shipped to his cousin, William Newell, and buried it behind his cousin's barn. He waited about a year, and then ordered the well diggers. The fact that the Newells didn't need a well dug or that the selected location was not appropriate for a well wasn't a factor. Up to this point, it's said that Hull had spent $2,600 on the whole project.

He set up a tent to house the 10 foot tall stone giant and charged the public to see it. He made about $30,000 displaying the giant and eventually sold his interest to a syndicate for $23,000. It was moved to Syracuse New York for display and attracted so many paying customers that P.T. Barnum offered the syndicate $50,000 to buy the giant. They turned him down. Not deterred, Barnum had his own giant constructed and put on display in New York City claiming that his was the original and the one in Syracuse was a fake. Both the original fake and the fake fake are on display to this day. The original is at the Farmers' Museum in Cooperstown New York, and the Barnum copy is at Marvin's Marvelous Mechanical Museum in Farmington Hills Michigan.