THE LEGEND OF PIASA

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 of 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 in folklore.

The pictograth as shown here is on the bluff near Alton today, found as we drove the river road back to St Louis, just before we took a drop at
"Fast Eddies", and that is a whole other story in itself.