Hoaxes and legends have played a significant role in the history of
upstate New York. For example:
The
Cardiff Giant, buried and "discovered" in the Onondaga County hamlet of
Cardiff, attracted such attention from the public, and from writers such as
Mark Twain and
L. Frank Baum that
P. T. Barnum made a copy which toured the country with his circus.
Champ is the name given to a reputed
lake monster living in
Lake Champlain. The village of
Port Henry has erected a giant model of Champ and holds "Champ Day" on the first Saturday of every August.
The three
Fox sisters of Hydesville, in the
Wayne County town of
Arcadia, conducted the first table-rapping séances in the area.[1] The fame of these seances helped to establish the 19th-century reputation of Central and Western New York as the "
Burned-over district" as well as the American movement of
Spiritualism (centered in
Lily Dale) that taught communication with the dead.