The shot was published in the February 1924 issue of National Geographic. A man standing in the shade of the leaves of a powerful plant on a hill on the Hawaiian island of Maui seems very tiny.
"The human figure gives a clear idea of the size of the green giant growing in a narrow gorge on the slope of the extinct volcano Haleakala," reads the caption to the photo. The editors must have liked this picture very much: two versions of it appeared at once in the issue, on the cover of which it was written: "Hawaiian Islands: America's defensive outpost - a land of wonders, volcanoes and flowers."
Of course, this is very similar to a prank, in those days there was still no concept of fake, just humor. And we would not even have doubted for a second now, but since then a lot has changed. We know about the fact that only recently gigantic people lived, so why not have a giant fauna, at least until people got to it and mowed everything clean, as they did with giant sequoias, mammoths and much more.