Piasa Bird at Piasa Park - Alton IL
Posted by: nomadwillie
N 38° 53.874 W 090° 11.946
15S E 742903 N 4309176
Located up on the cliffs is a large painting of the Piasa Bird.
Waymark Code: WMPGV9
Location: Illinois, United States
Date Posted: 08/30/2015
Views: 4
In 1673 Jacques Marquette reported that he and fellow French explorer Louis Jolliet discovered a painting of what was probably two "water monsters" on the bluffs of the Mississippi River near present-day Alton. By 1700 those pictographic creatures were no longer visible. In 1836 the novelist John Russell described an image cut into the bluff on a legendary dragon-like creature with wings. According to Russell, the creature was called Piasa, "The bird that devours men." That version of the pictograph as well as myths about the Piasa have become prominent folklore.
According to the diary, the Piasa "was as large as a calf with horns like a deer, red eyes, a beard like a tiger's, a face like a man, the body covered with green, red and black scales and a tail so long it passed around the body, over the head and between the legs."
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