Piasa : The Devourer Of Men

By David Johanek

Father Jacques Marquette, as recorded in his journal while exploring the Mississippi River in 1673, came face to face with what he believed was the Devil himself. High upon a limestone bluff were engraved images so life-like they struck fear in the missionary’s heart.

“They are as large as a calf, have horns on their heads like those of a deer, a horrible look, red eyes, a beard like a tiger’s, a face somewhat like a man’s, a body covered with scales, and a tail so long that it winds all around the body, passing above the head and going back between the legs, ending in a fish’s tail.”

Marquette learned the creature’s name as it was known to the Illini tribe of what is now Illinois, Piasa (pie-ah-saw) the bird that devours men. What was this creature? A real living beast? A survivor from prehistoric times?

The Illini tell a tale generations old from the days when old Chief Ouatoga peacefully led his people atop the bluffs overlooking the Mississippi. One morning, while the tribe went about its daily chores, they heard a thunderous rumbling. The people looked to the heavens fearing an approaching storm. They saw only the clear, bright sky above. The sound of thunder drew nearer, followed by the sound of strong, rushing wind.

“Look,” a young maiden cried before running to the safety of the valley below.

In the distance the sunlight reflected off the scales of an approaching monster. Undulating wings held its great body aloft. The Piasa shrieked at the fleeing tribe below. Everyone ran, from the children to old Ouatoga. Even the bravest warrior ran.

Using it’s tail like a ship’s rudder, the Piasa steered its huge, muscular body through the air. Swooping down, digging his claws into a young warrior’s back, the beast flapped its mighty wings and carried the man to his doom.

In coming weeks dozens died, men, women, children, the Piasa picked its prey indiscriminately. The Illini formed War parties but braves getting close enough to use hand weapons were pierced by horns, slashed with claws or flayed by the beast’s whip-like tail. With every breath the Piasa’s beard flared as it mocked them with its blood-red eyes.

For the first time in his life Ouatoga knew fear. The once mighty tribe dwindled. Too many young people had already died. How could the tribe go on? Ouatoga wandered into the wilderness. For three days he fasted and asked the Great Spirit for a vision. He was told to select twenty warriors, arm them with poisoned arrows and ambush the Piasa when it swooped upon its prey.

Ouatoga stood alone in a clearing atop a great limestone cliff, his warriors hidden in bushes at his sides awaiting the bird’s attack. As he felt the rising sun’s warmth upon his back, Ouatoga could see the Piasa’s approach. Raising his fist he gave his fiercest war-cry.

The shrieking beast pounced upon Ouatoga who clutched at some roots as the creature’s claws pierced his flesh. Before the beast could carry away their chief, the warriors sent their poisoned arrows into the soft flesh under the Piasa’s wings. With a shriek the dying bird stumbled back and fell into the Mississippi, far below.

Ouatoga recovered. Once more the tribe flourished and commemorated their victory by carving the Piasa’s image into the cliff-face from which it fell.

Other tribes have different legends. The Miamis and Michegamies battled in a valley where two Piasa dwelled in a cave. Neither bird had caused problems before. One enjoyed basking in the sun while beating its tail upon the rocks, the other preferred swimming in the Mississippi. Smelling fresh blood drove them into a frenzy. Attacking the warring men, the birds carried away two Miami chieftains. The Miamis retreated in terror, watching their leaders be devoured. Taking the Piasa’s intervention as a sign from the Great Spirit, the Michegamies drove the Miamis far from their home.

The cliffs along the Mississippi were a gallery for beastly petroglyphs. Marquette described at least two locations where the Piasa were carved upon the rock, at least one place showed two Piasa.

In 1836, professor John Russel set out to prove the legends. He found a cave he believed to be the Piasa’s home on a shear cliff-face 150 feet high, somewhere between Alton and Grafton, Illinois. He described it as being 50 feet above the Mississippi and 20 feet high with a 20 by 30 foot bottom.

“The floor of the cave throughout its whole extent was one mass of human bones. Skulls and other bones were mingled together in the utmost confusion. To what depth they extended I am unable to decide, but we dug to the depth of three or four feet in every quarter of the cavern and still found only bones. The remains of thousands must have been deposited there.”

The petroglyphs and cave have long since washed away. The largest Piasa, near Alton, was blown up by quarrying operations in 1848.

Archaeologist, William McAdams in the late 1800’s surmised that the petroglyphs were the work of the mysterious Mound Builders. Cahokia, the largest city north of Mexico and the capital of the mound building culture, is near Alton.

Sometime after 600 B.C., The Adena culture of Ohio began decorating their tombs with “Adena bird” images and Adena skeletons were scraped clean of flesh and fed to birds.

The greatest finds proving the worship of birds were in Monk’s Mound at Cahokia, the largest earthen pyramid in North America and the seat of Cahokian power. To the mound building culture, Monk’s Mound was as important as the Vatican to a Catholic.

Burial in sacred mounds was a privilege granted to nobles and shaman, to date no human remains have been recovered from Monk’s Mound. In 1971 a small clay tablet depicting a shaman wearing a winged cape and long-beaked helmet was excavated. Similar birdman motifs have been found in other mound building centers, including Spiro Mound in Georgia.

Mound 72 yielded the richest find at Cahokia, the “Beaded Birdman” burial. A man’s remains placed upon a cape comprised of 20,000 clam shell beads made to resemble a bird’s feathers. While not proving that Mound Builders worshipped the Piasa, Cahokia’s proximity to the Piasa glyphs and the possibility these petroglyphs were carved by the Mound Builders is compelling evidence.

If real, what could the Piasa have been? No known animal bears all of its characteristics, but supposedly extinct species show some similarities. Flying reptiles, the prehistoric creatures known as pterosaurs, comprise two groups.

The first, rhamphorynchoids, had teeth and a long tail ending in a kite-shaped rudder. However, no known rhamphorynchoid had horns

The second, pterodactyloids, lacked long tails, but many like Pteranodon had a large horn-like crest. Another, Quetzalcoatlus, was the largest flying creature yet to be found, with a wingspan of 40 feet.

No known species of either group seem to be  big enough to be the Piasa. Pteranodon, with a 23 foot wingspan, only had a turkey sized body. Artists conceptions of rhamphorynchoids with wings folded and hunched forward on their front claws add some size and bear some similarity to renderings of the Piasa.

Another, remote, possibility is the teratorn, an ancient condor-like bird with a wingspan of up to 25 feet. Although unlike the Piasa in description, two unique accounts seem to give the teratorn some credence. Black Hawk, an old Sauk Chieftain told of a “good spirit” which lived in a cave on Rock Island. “It was white, with large wings like a swan’s, but ten times larger.” Swan-like wings differ from descriptions of the Piasa’s bat-like wings, but does seem to fit the teratorn. Modern paleontological findings suggest some pterosaurs may have had feathers or fur on their bodies.

A modern account also suggests the teratorn. Ten year old Marlon Lowe was plucked by a giant bird while playing with friends. As his mother, Ruth, ran to his aid a second bird joined the attack. The bird dropped the frightened child after carrying him some 35 feet and flying off. At least six people witnessed the attack, describing the birds as looking like giant condors, with beaks at least six inches long and wingspans of eight to ten feet. This incident took place at Lawndale, Illinois, on July 25,1977.

No matter what the Piasa was, teratorn, unknown species of pterosaur, or a symbolic representation of sacred animals worshipped by the Mound Builders, the fact is, something caused so much fear to the native tribes that no Indian passed the Piasa petroglyph without firing an arrow or bullet at the effigy. Whether the fear stemmed from hatred of the Cahokians who may have used them as sacrifice and food to an embodiment of a deity, or if as legend says, a great bird developed a taste for human flesh, is unknown. What is known is that no mere legend would have caused such fear.

Copyright 2005 David Johanek, all rights reserved.