Fort Dodge, Iowa: Replica Cardiff Giant

Full-size copy of the famous prank. Fort Dodge is where the gypsum block came from that was carved into the original Cardiff Giant.

The Cardiff Giant replica is still located at the Fort Museum and Frontier Village in Fort Dodge. Made from Fort Dodge gypsum like the "real" Cardiff Giant, this fella has been stashed away in a lonely little building just outside the Frontier Village.

It's impressive in its own way, but the Cardiff Giant looks like one of those attractions that will fade away if its owners can't come up with a more interesting plan to draw visitors.

A great replica of a 19th Century stockade with oodles of artifacts. Everything from a mammoth tusk and many Indian artifacts to Paris Hilton's great-great grandmother's doll furniture. There is a wonderful collection of carriages in the livery barn. A stroll up Front Street gets you an original log cabin, a log church, Border Plains school house, a cabinet shop with a large collection of tools, a tinker's shop, general store (loads of neat stuff), jail, blacksmith shop. The exhibit of the "Greatest Hoax of the 19th Century" -- the Cardiff Giant -- is well worth the trip. Their trading post has some hard-to-find things like pop guns. They also sell art by Iowa artists.

Unfortunately, I had to skip Fort Dodge (correct pronunciation: "fordodge"), on my recent road trip, but AAA assures me that the Cardiff Giant is still there. Aside from its claim as the Gypsum Mining Capital of the World, the giant, which looks like an 8-foot tall sleeping 10-year-old, is Fort Dodge's main claim to fame. The giant is actually a replica of the original. As a kid in Fort Dodge, our school would take annual field trips to the old fort where the replica is kept and its story told. Also at the fort, lots of Karl King memorabilia. King was a composer "America's March King" who lived in Fort Dodge for a time.