Illinois - Alton, Piasa Bird

The Piasa Bird (pronounced PIE-A-Saw) is a local legend.   Jacques Marquette and Louis Joliet on their journey down the Mississippi in 1673, described the bird like monster which is painted on the bluffs.  The Illini Indians name it "The Piasa", meaning a bird that devours men.

Photo by Tom Wright.

The sender writes:
Hello!  This isn't too far from where I live.  There's nothing in the picture to give it size perspective, but it's actually quite large.

This postcard was postmarked in 2013.

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The legend:

This creature attacked and devoured people in a nearby Indian villages shortly after the corpses of a war gave it a taste for human flesh. The legend claims that a local Indian chief, named Chief Ouatoga, managed to slay the monster using a plan that came to him in a dream. The chief ordered his bravest warriors to hide near the entrance of the Piasa Bird's cave. Ouatoga then acted as bait to lure the creature out into the open. As the monster flew down toward the Indian chief, his warriors slew it with a volley of poisoned arrows.