”A Ghost Story” by Mark Twain / Based on the ”Cardiff Giant”

"A Ghost Story" is a short story by the American writer Mark Twain. The tale is based upon the Cardiff Giant, one of the most famous hoaxes in United States history. It was a 10-foot-tall purported "petrified man" uncovered in 1869, by workers digging a well behind the barn of William C. "Stub" Newell in Cardiff, New York.