The Alton Piasa-2

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February 1, 2017 gave me an opportunity to do a drive by of the Piasa site. The City of Alton has apparently turned it into a tourist park, but not open when I arrived. So taking a few photos at least gives a current perspective of the park about 4 miles north of the Alton Mississippi Bridge. This image looks the same as the other page of this story, but you can see fading of colors and rework of some features.

Another view of the Piasa cliff as of February 1, 2017. This is now a paved roadside park on Highway-100. The cave entrances have been sheared considerably and fenced off. There is an entrance facility station on the left, but I do not know if there are tours through the cavern. My car is the only one in the parking lot. Notice the arrowhead shaped marker on the right, of the Piasa Legend. There is a close-up photo and text further down this page.

Here is a view from the north side looking south, showing the cavern entrances throughout the limestone area. That space is a large trucking and equipment storage area. They may have a massive number of vehicles in the caves too, but I did not have access.

Just for a perspective on the legend of the beast that will destroy men, I added this Space Platform view of North America at night. The shapes look similar, but the original limestone cliff painting was even more-so of a likeness of this night view of North America. I remember an older version of the Piasa painting where the end of the tail was below the beast, very much like this photo. And that image was drawn on the cliff centuries before Sputnik, the very first satellite in space, and more than a century before the first 13 Colonies became a nation.

This view is further North about 3 miles, where the Mississippi and Illinois Rivers meet. I was standing beside a large Tugboat and barges when I took this shot. Ahead a few hundred feet, you see a car on a small land fill parking spot and a half buried barge. I think that area, is where the two large granite boulders were in the river with the original paintings that Marquette and Joliet announced in 1673. Time and profits change everything... The boulders may be further upstream, but I drove 5 miles and did not see them. You can see here, the Mississippi on the left, meeting the Illinois River to the right of a peninsula.

MANY THOUSANDS OF MOONS before the arrival of the palefaces, when the great magolonyx and mastodon, whose bones are now dug up were still living in this land of green prairies, there existed a bird of such dimensions that he could easily carry off in his talons, a full grown deer. Having obtained a taste of human flesh, from that time he would prey upon nothing else. He was as artful as he was powerful, would dart suddenly and unexpectedly upon an Indian, bear him off into one of the caves of the bluff, and devour him.

Hundreds of warriors attempted for years to destroy him, but without success. Whole villages were nearly depopulated, and consternation spread throughout all the tribes of the Illini. At length, Ouatoga, a chief whose fame as a warrior extended even beyond the great lakes, separated himself from the rest of his tribe, fasted in solitude for the space of a whole moon, and prayed to the great spirit, the master of life, that he would protect his children from the Piasa. On the last night of the fast the great spirit appeared to Ouatoga in a dream, and directed him to select 20 of his warriors, each armed with a bow and poisoned arrow, and conceal themselves in a designated spot. Near the place of their concealment, another warrior was to stand in open view as a victim for the Piasa, which they must shoot the instant that it pounced upon his prey.

When the chief awoke in the morning, he thanked the great spirit and returning to his tribe, told them of his dream. The warriors were quickly selected and placed in ambush, as he directed. Ouatoga offered himself as the victim. He was willing to die for his tribe. Placing himself in open view of the bluff, he soon saw the Piasa perched on the bluff eyeing his prey. Ouatoga drew up his manly form to its utmost height, and planting his feet firmly upon the earth, began to chant the death song of a warrior. A moment after the Piasa rose into the air and swift as a thunderbolt darted down upon the chief. Scarcely had he reached his victim, when every bow was sprang and every arrow sunk to the feather, into his body. The Piasa uttered a wild fearful scream that resounded far over the opposite side of the river, and expired. Ouatoga was safe. Not an arrow, not even the talons of the bird had touched him. The master of life in admiration of the generous deed of Ouatoga, had held an invisible shield over him. In memory of this event, the image of the Piasa was engraved on the bluff.

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.

These markers in the park tell a wee bit of the story, and far different from my readings where the chief tied himself to the cliff and nearly died from the wounds. The first marker of stone is hard to read, but I took care to get the words right and hopefully the spelling is good. Several decades back, the newspapers had an annual story of several pages and many photos of the Piasa Legend that was a bit different from what you read here and much more detailed of many names and places of the tribal events. They did interviews with the College artists that reinvigorated the image and kept the records of the updates.

Remember that the original image that I saw in the 1950's was on a very smooth limestone cliff or bluff and parallel to the river. The current painting is set back on a course sandstone quarry cliff, and has very different features and much less artistic detail. The original colors were red green and black, contrasting a tan granite, and later a white limestone cliff. The face is now enlarged pale and wide, where the original was dark, thin, and except for the horns and fangs, looked exactly like our former president BO.

If someone has access to those older photos and older stories that were in the Alton News in the 50's and 60's, I would like to post those and other legend memories to my storyline.