the piasa bird,

dear readers

when i was 11 i went with my grandparents to Pere Marquette State PArk for a camping trip. when we were in town we learned of the piasa bird, and its mural on a river buff wall and how it was repainted. (the orginal was chipped when the bluf was a quarry) being the way i am today back then i never forgot the story of the piasa bird. later i did some readings and discovered that the piasa bird may have not been a quaint indian legend but be actually be true...

the story of the piasa bird

the folowing story I got on altonweb.com

many moons ago, there existed a birdlike creature of such great size, he could easily carry off a full grown deer in his talons. His taste, however, was for human flesh. the indian named the piasa which mean "a bird that devouers men" Hundreds of warriors attempted to destroy the Piasa, but failed. Whole villages were destroyed and fear spread throughout the Illini tribe. Ouatoga, a chief whose fame extended even beyond the Great Lakes, separated himself from his tribe, fasted in solitude for the space of a whole moon, and prayed to the Great Spirit to protect his people from the Piasa.
On the last night of his fast, the Great Spirit appeared to Ouatoga in a dream and directed him to select 20 warriors, arm them each with a bow and poisoned arrow, and conceal them in a designated spot. Another warrior was to stand in an open view, as a victim for the Piasa.
When the chief awoke in the morning, he told the tribe of his dream. The warriors were quickly selected and placed in ambush. Ouatoga offered himself as the victim. Placing himself in open view, he soon saw the Piasa perched on the bluff eyeing his prey. Ouatoga began to chant the death song of a warrior. The Piasa took to the air and swooped down upon the chief. The Piasa had just reached his victim when every bow was sprung and every arrow sent sailing into the body of the beast. The Piasa uttered a fearful scream that echoed down the river, and died. Ouatoga was safe, and the tribe saved.

cool huh, but here the plot thickens. the story was written on by a Jesusit Father Jacques Marquette who traveled with lousi joilet on their famous trip down the mississiipi river. he saw the orginal drawning on the bluff, and recorded a description of the painting in which the reproduction come from,

he Piasa "was as large as a calf with horns like a deer, red eyes, a beard like a tiger's, a face like a man, the body covered with green, red and black scales and a tail so long it passed around the body, over the head and between the legs."

in the 1840's a Professor John Russell with a guide explored a cave, that the indians consoidered the piasa's lair we later wroted a accout of what he found

Near the close of March of the present year, I was induced to visit the bluffs below the mouth of the Illinois River, above that of the Piasa. My curiosity was principally directed to the examination of a cave, connected with the above tradition as one of those to which the bird had carried his human victims.

"Preceded by an intelligent guide, who carried a spade, I set out on my excursion. The cave was extremely difficult of access, and at one point in our progress I stood at an elevation of one hundred fifty feet on the perpendicular face of the bluff, with barely room to sustain one foot. The unbroken wall towered above me, while below me was the river.

"After a long and perilous climb, we reached the cave, which was about fifty feet above the surface of the river....The roof of the cavern was vaulted, and the top was hardly less than twenty feet high. The shape of the cavern was irregular; but, so far as I could judge, the bottom would average twenty by thirty feet.

"The floor of the cavern throughout its whole extent was one mass of human bones. Skulls and other bones were mingled in the utmost confusion. To what depth they extended I was unable to decide; but we dug to a depth of 3 or 4 feet in every part of the cavern, and still we found only bones. The remains of thousands must have been deposited here. How, and by whom, and for what purpose, it is impossible to conjecture."

what had he found? a hoax or the lair of the beast, proof that the story was more than legend? nmany tribes have a legend of a thunderbird not the car but a spirit in the form of a huge bird that the cause of lighting and thunder. their are many sightings of larger than any known bird these are called thunderbirds sightings could the piasa bird be a thunderbird?


in 1948 a family outside of Caledonia Illinois saw a monster bird bigger than aairplane, a truck driver reported the same thing. did the piasa bird surevived or have eggs? in fact there was a flap of huge bird sightings in or around Alton. anymore shocking some of the animals have a habit of abuncitng people like in the lawndale incident...

the lawndale incident

n 1977 in Lawndale, a small town in Logan County. On the evening of July 25, two giant birds appeared above Lawndale. The birds were reported several times as they circled and swooped in the sky. Finally, they headed straight down and reportedly attacked three boys who were playing in the backyard of Ruth and Jake Lowe. One of the birds grasped the shirt of ten-year-old Marlon Lowe, snagging its talons into the cloth. The boy tried in vain to fight the bird off then cried loudly for help.

The boy’s cries brought Marlon’s mother running outside. She later reported that she had seen the bird actually lift the boy from the ground and into the air. She screamed loudly and the bird released the child. It had carried him, at a height of about three feet, for a distance of about 35 feet. She was sure that if she had not come outside, the bird had been capable of carrying the boy away. She later stated that the bird had been bending down, trying to peck at the boy as it carried him off. Luckily, although scratched and badly frightened, Marlon was not seriously injured.

Four other adults appeared on the scene within seconds of the attack. They described the birds as being black in color, with bands of white around their necks. They had long, curved beaks and a wingspan of at least 10 feet. The two birds were last seen flying toward some trees near Kickapoo Creek.

Investigator Jerry Coleman, who lived in Decatur at the time, was able to interview the Lowe family, and the other witnesses, within hours of the incident and detailed the event. He returned to Lawndale with his brother two years later to speak to the family again and discovered that the family had been harassed and bothered by media attention and by locals in the community. It was not uncommon to find dead birds on their doorstep in the morning, placed there by mean-spirited pranksters. the local game warden called them "liars". but they still claimed that they saw a something

the Tippah county incident

In Tippah County, Missouri in 1868. According to the report, an eight year-old child was actually carried off by what was described by his teacher as an “eagle”. It happened one day during school. The teacher’s account states that “a sad tragedy occurred at my school a few days ago”. He wrote that “eagles” had been very troublesome in the neighborhood, carrying off small pigs and lambs. No one thought that they would ever bother the local children until one afternoon when one of the birds swept down and picked up a boy named Jemmie Kenney and flew off with him. The other children called out but by the time the teacher ran outside to see what was going on, he could only hear the child screaming as he vanished into the sky. The teacher and the children on the playground began to cry out to raise the alarm in town and apparently, the noise frightened the bird and it dropped the boy. “But his talons had been buried in him so deeply, and the fall was so great, that he was killed.”

the mayan piasa bird

in 1968 the Science Digest had a report by a mexican archaelogist-jornalist Jose Diaz-Bolio about his disocvery of a Serpent bird Sculpture that he found in the ruins of Tajin located in Veracruz,Mexico he theorized that it was real animal that lived during the peoird of the Ancient Mayans- 1,000-5000 yrs ago the same time that the piasa bird reign of terror on the indians that lived near Alton.

Findings

what is going on, is the Piasa Bird real? is it a giant bird taht dwarfed current species or an ancient dinosaur that beat the mass exinction or ocmes through a hole in time. is the Piasa Bird a indian legend or a true tale. but what of the bird sightings around Alton and the Cave of bones that John Russuel found? did the indian chief Watego slayed the beast or did its or its offspring survied to plague man still diid it learned ot avoid man but still plagued us today. we may never know its another offering from Dispatches From The Edge. if you're intersing you can see the recreated mural on the bluff go there it is a cool place to go is Alton, go there and decided for oyurself and maybe you'll see one too...


love and peace,

Alex Stallwitz