In October 1869, a dig on Stub Newell's farm near Cardiff, New York, uncovered a ten-foot gypsum figure.
In December 1869, George Hull confessed that he had carved the figure from Iowa gypsum in Chicago and buried it in November 1868.
In February 1870, a court ruled that both the original figure and P.T. Barnum's copy were fakes. The original is now at the Farmers' Museum in Cooperstown.
Midnight Dispatches: strange but true stories, told after midnight.