The Piasa Bird

The Piasa Bird is a dragon-like creature painted on a limestone bluff above the Mississippi at Alton, Illinois, about 20 miles from Pere Marquette State Park. Father Jacques Marquette described a painted monster on these bluffs in 1673. Today's 48-foot mural was repainted in 1998, and it watches over the Great River Road from the bluff.

What Marquette Saw in 1673

IDNR's history of the park quotes the explorers' account: paddling down the Mississippi in 1673, Louis Jolliet and Father Jacques Marquette "saw…two painted monsters which at first made us afraid". IDNR says they learned it was part bird, with a man's face, fish scales, deer horns and a long black tail. The Great Rivers & Routes Tourism Bureau notes Marquette's description of a creature "as large as a calf with antlers like a deer, red eyes, a beard like a tiger's".

The Legend of the Piasa

The tourism bureau tells the story this way. The name comes from the Illiniwek language and is said to mean "a bird that devours men". The creature terrorized the villages along the river until Chief Ouatoga fasted for a full moon, was told by the Great Spirit to hide 20 warriors with poisoned arrows on the bluff, and stood in the open as bait. When the creature swooped for him, the arrows brought it down into the Mississippi.

The bureau is frank that much of today's legend was elaborated in the Victorian era, and that some think the original painting showed a Native American water panther rather than a bird.

The Mural Today

• Where: on a limestone bluff at the edge of the Mississippi, less than a mile from downtown Alton, per Alton Main Street.
• Size: about 48 feet across.
• Age: the current painting was put back in 1998 by the City of Alton and the community. The tourism bureau says the original had nearly vanished by about 1700, and quarrying in the 1800s may have destroyed the rock it was painted on.
• The park below it: Alton Main Street lists it as a starting point for the Great River Road bike trail, with redevelopment plans announced in 2023.

The "Piasa Bird Cave"

The tourism bureau says the "caves" people point to near the painting are old rock quarries, not caves where a creature lived.

The Pere Marquette Connection

When local groups and the state bought the land for the park in 1931, IDNR says it was to be called Piasa Bluffs. By popular demand it was renamed for Father Marquette instead. Two of the park's group camps carry names from the legend: Camp Piasa and Camp Ouatoga, which IDNR lists as holding 120 campers each. See the park's history and camping.

Seeing the Piasa Bird on a Park Trip

Drive Route 100, the Great River Road, between Alton and the park, or ride the paved Sam Vadalabene Bike Trail. Pair it with Grafton on the way.