Men in black top hats and long pinstripe jackets dig away at the earth. They scoop away mounds of jet black soil surrounded by a group of spectators dressed in North Face jackets and dark blue jeans. Their worn wooden shovels reverberate from contacting a solid object. Like pirates discovering treasure, they dig around the item. Quickly, the outline of a goliath emerges from the ground. 

One top-hatted man wearing a blazing red vest beams down at the enormous figure beneath him, a smile curled on his face. He should be smiling. After all, he’s the one who buried the man-like figure in the first place. His name is Ty Marshal, and this entire event — from the spectators before him to the large human sculpture beneath him — is his creation. 

Marshal, a Syracuse artist, is literally unearthing a 142-year-old piece of Syracuse history with his Cardiff Giant project. It’s his recreation of a famous hoax that captured local and national headlines in 1869, when local farmers in Cooperstown, N.Y., unearthed what they thought was a petrified 10-foot tall man, the Cardiff Giant. But the giant became a national phenomenon. Even the famous showman P.T. Barnum tried cashing in, creating a replica in New York City while claiming the Syracuse giant was a fake. 

Eventually, its creator, Syracuse businessman George Hull, revealed it as a fake, a replica of a man made entirely of gypsum. Hull made the giant to mock religious fundamentalists who took literal belief in the Bible’s Genesis 6:4: ‘There were giants in the earth in those days.’

‘Pop culture as we know it began here with the Cardiff Giant,’ said Tom Carpenter, a fellow Syracuse artist who attended the Cardiff Giant’s recreation. ‘It was the first pop culture sensation.’

The Cardiff Giant made the jump to the 21st century when Marshal planned on creating an original hoax of his own. While researching his hoax, he stumbled upon the story of the Cardiff Giant. To him, this is Syracuse’s own Loch Ness Monster, its local Bigfoot. What astounded him even more was that, despite being a Syracuse native, he had never known of his hometown’s tradition of folklore and innovation. 

‘I’m hoping people will pass the story down and say, ‘Look at this very unique and innovative thing that happened in Central New York in 1869,” Marshal said. ‘The idea of passing a story down through generations is very important.’

After witnessing the original giant at the Farmers’ Museum in Cooperstown, Marshal set out replicating the giant to its original specifications — right down to the very size of his cold, gray nose. The original weighed 3,000 pounds but Marshal used Portland cement, hypertufa and peat moss for his creation, which weighs between 500 and 700 pounds. 

Although history is a crucial component to Marshal’s giant, it is also a reminder of the intricate link between the arts and a local economy and how they help one another grow. As Marshall’s Cardiff Giant rests at the Lipe Art Park on West Fayette Street, local Syracuse businesses like Lakeland Winery and Speach Family Candy Shoppe are capitalizing on the event with special Cardiff Giant products. 

‘People create new things, new ideas that drive the economy. Art helps drive the local economy and builds business,’ said Carpenter, who sold Cardiff Giant T-shirts through his company, King Weasel.

This, in essence, speaks to Marshal’s goal of fostering community through art and collaboration. When Marshal started building the giant, he needed additional funding to see the project through. He launched a Kickstarter fundraising campaign, which lets users pledge a specific amount they need. Then others can donate any desired amount of money. By earning his desired $3,000, Marshal proved a far-reaching interest in the arts. 

The giant’s effects even reach Syracuse University. Matt Reilly and Mofe Voza, two teaching assistants for ANT 141: ‘Introduction to Archaeology and Prehistory,’ incorporated the Cardiff Giant into their curriculum this semester, hoping to raise students’ awareness of the local history. Reilly said they will bring the class down this Saturday to view the giant.

‘It’s good for the community to get this exposure and use one of the most famous events in Syracuse history to do it,’ Reilly said.

Marshal’s Cardiff Giant will reside at Lipe Art Park until this Sunday. Then, Marshal will transport the statue to Hanover Square via horse and buggy — just as it was done in 1869. There, the public can behold the giant with a 25-cent admission.

Sitting in Hanover Square, the giant will be another piece in the city’s growing public arts initiative — art that is available to all within and outside of the community. With such public art installations scattered throughout the city, Marshal said projects like the Cardiff Giant are the key to claiming an artistic identity in Syracuse. 

And he’s not doing it alone. Other local artists have joined in on the Cardiff Giant project, helping put together the event. Syracuse visual artist Dustin Regner said he was intrigued by the giant’s community-building abilities.

‘It’s another individual bringing people together to enjoy themselves,’ Regner said. ‘It’s about getting people out and getting them involved by sharing and talking.’

At the park, more men, and even women, appear in top hats, bonnets and even Raccoon-skin vests to create a fully immersive artistic experience. Marshal knows Syracuse’s artistic future doesn’t lie just in the past, but also in the present community.