Cardiff, New York is a small hamlet

Hamlet (place)

A hamlet is usually a rural settlement which is too small to be considered a village, though sometimes the word is used for a different sort of community. Historically, when a hamlet became large enough to justify building a church, it was then classified as a village...

 in Onondaga County, New York

Onondaga County, New York

Onondaga County is a county located in the U.S. state of New York. As of the 2010 census, the population was 467,026. The county seat is Syracuse.Onondaga County is part of the Syracuse, NY Metropolitan Statistical Area....

, located south of Syracuse

Syracuse, New York

Syracuse is a city in and the county seat of Onondaga County, New York, United States, the largest U.S. city with the name "Syracuse", and the fifth most populous city in the state. At the 2010 census, the city population was 145,170, and its metropolitan area had a population of 742,603...

. It was the site of the William C. "Stub" Newell farm where the "Cardiff Giant

Cardiff Giant

The Cardiff Giant was one of the most famous hoaxes in United States history. It was a tall purported "petrified man" uncovered on October 16, 1869 by workers digging a well behind the barn of William C. "Stub" Newell in Cardiff, New York. Both it and an unauthorized copy made by P.T...

", a famous hoax

Hoax

A hoax is a deliberately fabricated falsehood made to masquerade as truth. It is distinguishable from errors in observation or judgment, or rumors, urban legends, pseudosciences or April Fools' Day events that are passed along in good faith by believers or as jokes.-Definition:The British...

, was "discovered" on October 16, 1869.

In 1993, Cardiff experienced a landslide where part of Bear Mountain rolled over houses and trapped a few residents. The early afternoon of April 27 changed the lives of many people who lived on Tully Farms Road. Properties were covered in mud and clay, 15 feet high in some places.