Cardiff Giant replica (Fort Museum)

Fort Dodge, Iowa, United States

·

Characters and mascots

✓

Current

Listed, not yet checked · Oct 2026

This Big Thing is recorded as still being here.

A 10-foot, 3,000-pound replica of the 1869 Cardiff Giant, carved from locally mined Fort Dodge gypsum, is on show at the Fort Museum & Frontier Village in Fort Dodge, Iowa. The Messenger dates it to 1980; Legends of America gives 1972.

Private to your Passport.

PLAN YOUR VISIT

No recommended arrival yet

We have not checked a recommended place to arrive or stop here yet.

This takes you to the Big Thing itself. If stopping, choose a safe and legal place nearby.

Cardiff Giant replica (Fort Museum)

This pin marks the Big Thing itself. If stopping, choose a safe and legal place nearby.

Site-level location · 42.4762° N, 94.1852° W

FIELD GUIDE

The story

The stone behind one of America's best-known hoaxes came from Fort Dodge, and the town's museum keeps a full-size copy of the result. The Cardiff Giant, a 10-foot 'petrified man', was 'discovered' by well diggers at Cardiff, New York, in 1869. The Fort Dodge Messenger reported in 2019 that its creator, tobacconist George Hull, had the gypsum shipped from a Fort Dodge quarry to Chicago, where it was carved and treated with acid to look ancient. The original now stands at the Farmers' Museum in Cooperstown, New York.

The Fort Museum & Frontier Village, which the Messenger said in April 2026 is a privately owned non-profit that opened in May 1964, displays the replica. The paper describes it as 10 feet tall and 3,000 pounds, carved from locally mined gypsum, and quoted the museum's executive director saying the exhibit draws visitors from across the United States.

Sources differ on when it was made. The Messenger reported in 2019 that sculptor Cliff Carlson found the right block of gypsum in 1980, sixteen years after the museum first showed interest; a storm then brought down his tent and cracked the stone, and the paper said the crack could be seen in the giant's left thigh. Legends of America dates the replica to 1972, and Roadside America says Carlson carved it in front of visitors in a display room built at Frontier Village.

The giant is a footnote to a larger story. The Messenger recounted that showman P. T. Barnum offered Hull $50,000 for the original, was refused, and exhibited a copy of his own, which the paper says is now at a museum in Farmington Hills, Michigan. The Fort Museum also has a replica military stockade, a blockhouse and a street of period buildings.

Add a photo

PRACTICAL

Plan your stop

WHAT TO EXPECT

The replica is displayed at the Fort Museum & Frontier Village, a privately owned non-profit museum with an admission fee, set among a replica stockade, a blockhouse and period village buildings.

ACCESS

Fort Museum & Frontier Village, 1 Museum Road, Fort Dodge, Iowa, a privately run museum with an admission fee. The giant is in an exhibit on the museum grounds; check the museum's site for current hours.

COMMUNITY

Visitor Log

WHAT'S NEXT

Find another Big Thing nearby

A 25-foot statue of Pocahontas at the eastern edge of Pocahontas, Iowa, on Highway 3, in Princess Park; SAH Archipedia dates the roadside ensemble to 1958 and credits the design to W. C. Ballard.

Characters and mascots

·

49 km away

TRANSPARENCY

Sources & research

Something not right?

If this Big Thing has changed, moved or gone, telling us keeps the guide honest for the next traveller.

Suggest an update →Report a problem →