The Legend of the Piasa

Ever since the 1998 horror classic, Urban Legend, I’ve had an extreme interest with urban legends and thankfully for me, the St. Louis metropolitan area plays host to a vast wealth of them. For instance, the city I attended high school in, Collinsville, Illinois, is said to be home to the Seven Gates of Hell; the St. Louis Art Museum has an ancient African Effigy that reportedly haunts the building; and St. Louis is actually where the events that inspired the horror classic, The Exorcist, occurred! I could easily list several others and in time each will gets its own blog, but for this post, I’ll be sharing with you all my absolute favorite of the lot, The Legend of the Piasa.

The Piasa Bird is every bit as much of a household name around the St. Louis metro as my beloved Britney Spears. Not everyone necessarily knows about it, but everyone knows of it. I remember as a child when we would go up to Raging Rivers Waterpark – where it’s cool when it’s hot – in Grafton, Illinois, we’d pass the caves along the Great River Road that boasted the painted image of the Piasa Bird, big and bold for all to see. No matter who I was with, anytime we passed those caves, a conversation about the legendary beast would arise and sometimes last till the waterpark was reached. Like nearly all urban legends, the interpretation differed slightly based on who was telling the story, but the main parts always remained in tact.

Up until the end of this past April, it had probably been more than a decade since I last stopped at Piasa Park. The city of Alton park that sits at the base of the Piasa Bird mural that’s painted alongside the huge bluff there before the caves. I knew that after I signed up for another year of verybeneficial.net, I would need to expand the palate of my blog and thought my love for local urban legends would be a winning selection with which to do so. Launching this category with the Piasa Bird was a no brainer, but facts matter, so a visit to the park became a must.

Aside from the obvious and can’t miss depiction of the Piasa Bird itself painted across the bluff, the other most notable piece in the park came in the form of a large granite arrowhead shaped monument that told the story of the Piasa Bird. This is what it read:

MANY THOUSAND 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 directed Ouatoga offered himself as the victim. He was willing to die for his tribe.

Placing himself in the 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 sprung and every arrow sent, 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. Such is the Indian tradition. Erected 1985

In Piasa Park, there was a second sign that provided additional and alternate information about the local urban legend.

The Legend of the 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.

Erected by the Illinois state historical society, 1984

After reading this, I found myself quite intrigued to learn more about novelist John Russell and his depiction of this now legendary monster.

In my research, I was able to find exactly what Jacques Marquette wrote in his diary regarding the bluff painting of the Piasa. He had this to say:

As large as a calf; they have horns on their heads like those of 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.

He also marveled at the technical skill of the painting and found it incredibly difficult to believe that it had been created by “any savage” and claimed that the section of the cliff on which it appeared would have made its creating difficult at best. Marquette also claimed that he himself made a sketch of the painting of these monsters, but that the sketch was later lost.

Marquette and Jolliet were not the only two 17th century explorers to note the account of the Piasa bluff painting, but they were apparently the first and their version of it became the most prolific. In 1825, a sketch of the bluff painting was discovered and depicted a horned, seemingly scaly creature that suggested many of the exotic details claimed by Marquette. This discovery is inevitably what prompted John Russell, a former professor from a town near Alton, to publish his own account of the painting in 1836.

In his publication, he provided a backstory for the Piasa Bird and as it would turn out, it happens to be the very story engraved on the arrowhead monument at the park. His piece goes into greater detail though and adds vivid descriptions of a cave filled with the bones of all those who had been killed by the Piasa, which he estimated to be in the thousands.

Russell allegedly later acknowledged to his son that he had fabricated this account, but within just a few years of his article’s release, this legend of the Piasa was being repeated and elaborated far and wide and eventually became widely accepted. A variety of explanations of the origins of the painting exist today, ranging from credible attempts to place what Marquette and Jolliet saw into the broader context of Native American culture and the history of European colonization of North America all the way to outlandish claims about Chinese exploration of the Mississippi.

For reasons that are beyond my personal ability to understand – inevitably for profit – the bluff where the original painting appeared was quarried and thus destroyed during the 19th century. Thankfully though, the painting was re-created and later restored during the 20th century, thereby giving birth to the petite, yet enchanting, Piasa Park.

I know I’ve already gave mention to this, but urban legends intrigue me like no other! I mean, I just have so many more questions! Like when did the Piasa Bird supposedly live? Was there only the one? Was there supposed to be some sort of do the right thing message attached to this Native American legend that the elders would share with the younger tribes people? I’m also going to say something that many of you may regard as a bit crazy and off, but sometimes I believe in these urban legends! Take the Loch Ness Monster for example, I totally believe that thing was real, so if it was, why couldn’t the same be said for the Piasa Bird? I don’t know, argue what you will, think I’m crazy, that’s totally fine, but the fact remains none of us will ever truly know. This is what makes urban legends so unbelievably intriguing to me, the very real possibility that at one point in time, maybe this wasn’t just a legend, but a reality.

As always, THANK YOU so much for viewing! I appreciate you greatly! Please feel free to leave me a comment below as I love reading and responding to them! I’ll be back soon with another all-new post, so until then, I wish you all, all the best!