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Kathy Heitman "THE PICTURE LADY"

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Hummingbirds : This birds were photographed this summer during our trip through the Ozark National Scenic Riverways System in Missouri.

Skimmers :

Piasa Bird : Photos of the Piasa Bird are below this text. It's interesting to read below about from when it was allegedly first spotted up until today. Please take a minute to read this interesting story. Also, Alton, IL along the banks of the magnificent and in my opinion, THE coolest river in the world, the Mississippi River, has a lot of history. If you are ever in the area, stop by Alton Visitor's Center and ask about it's history. You'll be surprised at what you read and hear. The painting is located on the bluff face at drivers' eye level between Alton & Grafton, Illinois. It's on th eeast side of Great River Road (Hwy. 100) at Piasa Park.

When I was growing up in St. Louis County, MO, I spent a lot of time at and around the bluff that this bird is painted on. Each time I travel back to see family, I have to go by the Piasa Bird. Besides the Mississippi River, this is one of my favorite places on earth. The original Pisasa bird carving was a petroglyph (a prehistoric carving, usually dipicting something, someone, or a story about them in a rock surface). The legend is as follows:

In the years long before the Europeans arrived in the Meeting of the Great Rivers area, the Piasa (pronounced Pie-ah-saw) was a bird-like creature of such great size that it could easily carry off a full grown deer in its talons. But what concerned the Illini (pronounced "igh-Leye-neye") tribes of the region was that the creature preferred human flesh. The native people attempted for years to destroy the creature but were usuccessful and watched with terror as this monster destroyed whole villages. Then a local chief, Ouatoga (pronounced "wah-Tow-ga") whose fame as a great warrior extended far beyond the region, separated himself from the rest of his tribe, fasted in solitude for the space of a full moon, and prayed to the Great Spirit to protect his people from the Piasa. On the last night of this fast, the Great Spirit appeared to the chief in a dream and directed him to select and arm twenty warriors with bows and poison arrows. He was instructed to hide the warriors in a chosen spot while one warrior was to stand in open view as bait for the Piasa. As instructed in the dream, Ouatoga assembled his warriors and laid the trap with himself as the bait. Soon Ouatoga saw the Piasa perched on a nearby bluff. Ouatoga stood erect and chanted the death song of a warrior to attract the great beast. As the Piasa swooped down upon the chief, the hidden warriors let loose their poison arrows. Mortally wounded, the Piasa uttered an awful and hideous scream that could be heard far and wide. In commemoration of the event, the image of the Piasa was engraved on the bluff. It then became the custom that whenever a warrior passed the image, he discharged an arrow at the once feared creature.

On their exploratory trip down the Mississippi River in 1673, Pere Jacques Marquette and Louis Joliet became the first non-natives to view the image of two large monsters on the bluffs near Piasa Creek. According to Marquette's diary, "each 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 that it passed around the body, over the head and between the legs, ending like a fishes' tail." Later records describe only one image of the monster.

The modern rendition of this legendary creature traces it's roots to the 20th Century. Herbert Forcade researched this Native American legend and chose a spot on the bluffs north of Alton, IL to paint the Piasa Bird. This painting was blasted away in the 1960's to make way for the Great River Road. A metal replica of the Piasa was subsequently located at Norman's Landing in Godfrey, IL before being taken down in 1995. The current 48-ft.by 22-ft. painting situated on a 100-ft. by 75-ft. section of the Mississippi Bluffs just north of Alton, IL, 1 mile up the Great River Road from the Alton Visitor's Center was completed by the American Legends Society and volunteers in 1998. (Ref.: greatriverroad.com & Alton, IL Visitor's Center).

Note: When I was in grade school, the legend we learned said the PIasa Bird rose up out of the Mississippi River to fly around and then perch on the bluffs to watch for prey.

To read about the Piasa Bird, Alton, IL and other interesting places in the area, please visit http://www.greatriverroad.com

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