<< Image Pages >> Piasa Bird - Rock Art in United States in Great Lakes Midwest
Submitted by bat400 on Thursday, 12 July 2007 Page Views: 7823
Rock ArtSite Name: Piasa BirdCountry: United States Region: Great Lakes Midwest Type: Rock Art
Nearest Town: Alton, IL
Latitude: 38.898139N Longitude: 90.199194W
Condition:
5 | Perfect |
4 | Almost Perfect |
3 | Reasonable but with some damage |
2 | Ruined but still recognisable as an ancient site |
1 | Pretty much destroyed, possibly visible as crop marks |
0 | No data. |
-1 | Completely destroyed |
5 | Superb |
4 | Good |
3 | Ordinary |
2 | Not Good |
1 | Awful |
0 | No data. |
5 | Can be driven to, probably with disabled access |
4 | Short walk on a footpath |
3 | Requiring a bit more of a walk |
2 | A long walk |
1 | In the middle of nowhere, a nightmare to find |
0 | No data. |
5 | co-ordinates taken by GPS or official recorded co-ordinates |
4 | co-ordinates scaled from a detailed map |
3 | co-ordinates scaled from a bad map |
2 | co-ordinates of the nearest village |
1 | co-ordinates of the nearest town |
0 | no data |
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External Links:
Rock Art in Illinois.
The Piasa Bird of Alton, Illinois, has legendary status in both modern and ancient minds. The original pre-contact pictograph on the east side of the Mississippi River was destroyed in the mid 1800's, but the citizens of Alton have been recreating the famed monster since the 1920's. The current incarnation may be seen at this location.
In 1675 Marquette and Jolliet were the first Europeans to explore the upper Mississippi with native people. Marquette had learned of the great river from Illinois people earlier as he worked as a missionary in the western Great Lakes. He described a large painted figure high on the rock face around what is now Alton Illinois and told how the Indians who were traveling with them averted their eyes from the awesome beast.
According to Marquette's log: "While Skirting some rocks, which by Their height and length inspired awe, We saw upon one of them two painted monsters which at first made Us afraid, .... They are as large As a calf; they have Horns on their heads Like those of a deer, a horrible look, red eyes, a beard Like a tiger's, a face somewhat like a man's, a body Covered with scales, and so Long A tail that it winds all around the Body, passing above the head and going back between the legs, ending in a Fish's tail. Green, red, and black are the three Colors composing the Picture."
No sketch exists from Marquette and Jolliet's expedition, but Jean-Baptiste-Louis Franquelin Jolliet's cartographer drew the monster from the description.
The figure was still discernible in the early 1800's. In 1836 a local, John Russell, attributed the figure to an "Indian Legend" of a flying monster defeated by members of a local tribe. Whether Russell made up the story or it is based on native stories (possibly of the native myth of the Underwater Panther) is unknown, although Marquette does not relate a creature with wings, and Russell's translation of "Piasa" as being an Illinois native word for "bird that devours men" is entirely false. (However, "páyiihsa" is a Miami-Illinois word for a dangerous "dwarf" or "fairy". So its possible Russell adopted the word for his own monster story.)
However, Russel's story seems to be the source of local oral history where young children are kept in line by threats of the Piasa Bird (pronounced "pie-a SAW"). Today local schools adopt the figure as a mascot.
In 1920 a local boy scout recreated the figure, and it has been periodically "renewed" ever since. For a photo, see this Alton website. A copy of Franquelin's sketch appears at www.greatriverroad.com.
More intriguingly, here is an image attributed to the National Museum of the American Indian, George Gustav Heye Center library, attributed as an Underwater Panther. No date is attached to the image, but compare with the copy of the Franquelin's sketch.
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