Case file · Folklore / legend
The Piasa bird
In 1673 Jacques Marquette, travelling down the Mississippi with Louis Jolliet, described two painted monsters on the bluffs near present-day Alton, Illinois, with horns, red eyes, a beard and a long tail.
1673 CE · 38.90, -90.17 · status: legend
The account
The name 'Piasa' and the tale of a man-eating bird come from John Russell's 1836 story, not from Marquette. The original painting was destroyed by quarrying in the 19th century; a modern reconstruction is on the bluff today.
The sceptical view
The 'legend' as told today is largely 19th-century invention. The painting itself was real and probably belonged to the underwater-panther imagery of Mississippian and later peoples.