Vilas County news. [volume] (Eagle River, Vilas County, Wis.) 1896-1927, 1904-10-31
MICHAEL FOLEY OF FORT DODGE
GUARDED THE STONE.
STUPENDOUS FAI
Old lowan Has Just Celebrated His
Eighty-second Birthday = Stone
from Gypsum Quarry Was Carved
Into the Giant in Chicago and
Buried in New York.

Fort Dodge, Iowa, Oct 27.-Sur-
rounded by happy family of children
and grandchildren, Michael Foley OF
this city celebrated his eighty-second
birthday anniversary with good
chances for participating in many to
come. Mr.. Foley has lived a quiet life
for many years, but remembered well
the time that he was engaged to quar-
ry the rock which was afterward made
into the Cardiff giant" one of the
most colossal frauds ever perpetrated
upon an unsuspecting public.
1t was in the month of July, 1868,
that two men, one giving his name as
Hull, of Syracuse, N. Y, and the other
Martin, claiming to be form Cedar
Rapids, engaged quarters at the old
st. Charles hotel in this city. They
pretended to be studying the geograph.
ical conditions about Fort Dodge. They
made several inquiries as to where
they could find a large ledge of gyp-
sum rock. They even went so far as
to buy an acre Of ground and quarried
it with a view of finding out just what
they wanted, but failed. They were
finally informed in a casual way that
Michael Foley, who was engaged in get
ting out rock for railroad company,
could in all probability get them what
they wanted. When pressed for an
explanation as to what purpose they
intended putting the rock, Hull e2>
planned that they were going to ship
it to New York to exhibit for the pur-
pose OF raising stock company to
manufacture plasterparis Martin said
they were going to take it to Spring
field, ILL.,, as Iowa's contribution to
the Lincoln monument, which was
then being built
When Mr. Foley was interviewed
concerning the stone, he Informed
them that he could fill their order. He
had just stripped ledge of gypsum
rock about 100 feet long. On the top
of this he drilled some twelve holes
and poured in about fifteen pounds OF
powder. A long fuse touched it off at
once and the rock was broken loose
in splendid condition 1t was twenty
four feet long, three feet wide and
eighteen inches thick.
Tn stone was shipped to Chicago,
where it was given in charge of a
sculptor, who carved it into a giant,
pricked it with needles, while it was
soft, to give it the appearance of hui,
man skin, treated it with acids to give
it the ancient appearance, and packed
it in an iron box, twelve feet long,
four feet wide and three feet deep, and
in this manner shipped it to George
Olds, at Union, N. Y. 1t arrived at
Union on Oct. Is, 1868. On Nov 4, a
man claimed the box, receipted for it,
loaded it on large wagon, Mitchell
four horses on and carted it fifty miles
to place near Cardiff, in Onondaga
county, New York, where the giant
was buried and remained until Oct. 16,
1869, nearly a year, when the resur-
rection took place while men were
pretending to dig a we'll Special
trains were run from New York car
rying visitors by the thousands, to see
it, and it is estimated that $4,000 per
sons visited the spot the first weeA
after it was discovered and paid 81
each for a sight of the giant made
from the stone quarried by Michael
Foley.