Documented folklore from the Club 49 map, told straight and sourced.
On the bluffs above the Mississippi at Alton, Illinois, the French explorer Marquette in 1673 recorded a great painted monster the local people feared, a scaled, horned, winged creature they called the Piasa. The original is long weathered away, but a painted recreation looks out over the river from the rock to this day. It is one of the oldest recorded pieces of American monster-lore, tied to a real Native rock-painting tradition. Told as the folklore it is; the bluffs and the painting are real and free to see.
Alton (Madison County, Illinois). Source: A monster recorded by Marquette in 1673, repainted on the bluff. The Club 49 map pins this legend at its documented country, beside the real mines, active claims, land status and modeled honey holes of the same ground. Open the free map and go stand in the story.
See every spot on the free map →