The pale, roughly carved stone figure of the Cardiff Giant lying in a gravel bed beneath a showman's banner that reads ‘Cardiff Giant, taller than Goliath whom David slew’. — The Cardiff Giant at the Farmers' Museum, Cooperstown, May 2013 — Martin Lewison, via Wikimedia Commons (Flickr) · CC BY-SA 2.0 (Martin Lewison) · Image source

Trailhead / site map

Address / place search: 5775 State Highway 80, Cooperstown, NY 13326 (not a published decimal pin — verify on official maps before travel)

Cardiff Giant · Fenimore Farm, Cooperstown

The 1869 ‘petrified man’ lies in the main barn of Fenimore Farm & Country Village (formerly the Farmers' Museum). Pay admission and see a famous hoax up close.

Region New York · Otsego County Location 5775 State Highway 80 (Lake Road), Cooperstown, NY 13326 Added October 3, 2026

Access

The museum was called The Farmers' Museum until it was renamed Fenimore Farm & Country Village on 1 Nov 2024. The Giant is in the main barn. Admission (posted 2026-10-03): adults and teens 13–64 $17.50, seniors 65+ $12.50, ages 7–12 $10, ages 6 and under free. Members and active and retired career military get in free, and Museums for All (SNAP EBT) admission is free for up to four people. Fall 2026 hours (Sep 14–Nov 1): Tuesday–Sunday, 10 a.m.–4 p.m., closed Mondays. Seasonal hours change, so check fenimorefarm.org/visit or call 607-547-1450. The museum doesn't publish coordinates, so use the street address.

Safety & respect

This is a working-farm museum with livestock, uneven ground and historic buildings. Follow staff and posted rules, and don't touch the exhibit. October brings evening events such as ‘Things that Go Bump in the Night’, which may have separate tickets or rules.

Lore note

The museum's own account says cigar maker George Hull had a five-ton block of gypsum carved, buried it near Cardiff, New York, and then had it ‘discovered’. The petrified-man story drew paying crowds until it was exposed as a hoax. The museum bought the Giant in 1947.

Map links

Official / public map link · Open in Google Maps (street-address search — not a published decimal pin)

Sources

Fenimore Farm & Country Village, Explore page (The Cardiff Giant)
Fenimore Farm & Country Village, Visit page (admission and seasonal hours)

You can still pay to see the Cardiff Giant, which is the original joke. The barn display keeps the old showman’s banner (“taller than Goliath”) right above the gypsum, so the exhibit shows the hoax and its sales pitch together.

Archivist’s margin

Read the Cardiff Giant file first. It’s a known fake, kept in a museum, with its paper trail intact. That makes it a useful counterweight to any “unexplained giant” headline.