Page 4 - RAGBRAI2010

STORM LAKE TO ALGONA

HOAXES IN IOWA of Davenport.
These tablets
ARCHAEOLOGY incited years of contro-
versy, cover-up and accusation,
Hoaxes have had a long history in only to be fully discredited as forgeries later.
archaeology, from Piltdown Man Perhaps the most famous hoax is that of the
in England, to the Kensington Cardiff Giant. The “giant” was uncovered in 1869 on
Runestone in Minnesota. Iowa, a farm near Cardiff, New York, and was purportedly
unfortunately, has not been the remains of a 10-ft tall, petrified man. Eventually
immune to this phenomenon it was found that the giant started out as a slab of
either, and we are reminded gypsum quarried near Ft. Dodge, taken to Chicago
of this as we pedal our way to Algona in Kossuth for sculpting, and then shipped to New York, where
County, home to the “Kossuth Giants”. it was buried and subsequently unearthed. People
from all around paid to see the giant on exhibition,
In what was clearly posted as a parody on and it drew such crowds, that P.T. Barnum had a
yawp.com, the story of the unearthing of mummi- second “Cardiff Giant” fashioned for his own display.
fied giant remains on a Kossuth County farm quickly A modern replica of the giant resides at Fort
took on a life of its own, when it was picked up by Dodge’s Fort Museum.
any number of other paranormal websites. It went
so far, in fact, that our own Team Archaeology
rider, Dan Higginbottom, archaeologist for the State
Historical Society, took emails and calls asking for
more information on this unique discovery!

Another Iowa hoax, known as the Davenport
Conspiracy, began in 1877 when 2 incised slate
tablets (a third
was found a
year later) were
found in a burial
mound outside

Two incised tablets from
the Davenport Conspiracy.
Photographs courtesy of
Putnam Museum.

Photograph of
Cardiff Giant.