mmslouisuac14

The Unknown Andean Condor

14    The de Fer Map

Mathew Louis

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The Piasa was a name afforded to a petroglyph image that was painted on a boulder along the Mississippi River near what is now the town of Alton, Illinois.    Among the earliest recorded observers of the petroglyph was Jacques Marquette, who explored the area in 1673.  A nineteenth-century writer named Perry Armstrong described this image as a figure as "large as a calf, with head and horns like a goat, their eyes are red, beard like a tiger's and a face like a man's."  Marquette's journal, translated from the French, noted that their "tails pass over their bodies and between their legs under their bodies, ending like a fish's tail."

"Comme nous cottoions des rochers affreux pour leur haulteur et pour leur longeur; Nous vismes sur un de ses rochers deux monstres en  peinture qui Nous firent peur d'abord et sur lesquels les sauuages [sic] les plus hardys n'osent pas arrester longtemps les yeux; ils sont gros comme [v]n veau, ils ont des Cornes en teste comme des cheureils [sic]; un regard affreux, des yeux rouges, une barbe comme d'un Tygre, la face a quelque chose de l[]homme, le corps cou[u]ert de cailles, et la queuë si longue qu'elle fait tout le tour du Corps passant pardessus la teste et retournant entre les jambes elle se termine en queuë de Poisson."

"While Skirting some rocks, which by Their height and Length inspired awe, We saw upon one of them two painted monsters which at once made Us afraid, and upon Which the boldest savages dare not Long rest their eyes.  They are as large As a calf; they have Horns on their heads Like those of 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 so long A tail that it winds all around the Body, passing above the head and going back between the legs, ending in a Fish's tail. "

----from Marquette, Jacques.  'Recit des voyages et des decouvertes du R. Père Jacques Marquette de la Compagnie de Jesus, en l'année 1673 et aux suivantes; la continuation de ses voyages par le R. P. Claude Alloüez, et Le  journal autographe du P. Marquette en 1674 & 1675.  Avec la carte de son voyage tracée de sa main.'  Imprint of Weed, Parsons, and Cie.  Albany, New York; 1855 (pp. 64--65).  {It is taken from MS. 214 of Marquette's journal, and this is not the only reprint of it.}

By the 19th-century, the edifice had deteriorated to the point where this petroglyph was hardly discernible, and the site was ultimately quarried in 1856.  About 1825, a drawing was produced by one William Dennis and presented to a writer on the subject, William McAdams, and it is this image that has sustained what the actual edifice came to represent.  However, it was the belief, if not understanding, of the author's daughter, Georgia Clifford McAdams, who in her own work made a point that neither McAdams nor Dennis were familiar with the petroglyph.  Hennepin likewise described it having horns of a goat, but the drawing of Dennis clearly shows it having semblance to antlers of a male deer.  This image also goes further as a literal interpretation, as the tail of the creature is long and winds around its body, and rows of sharp teeth are visible.   While the Dennis drawing is the presumable consequence of an interpretation lost in translation, it, surprisingly and contrary to what has long been put forward, may not be the first image of the Piasa.  

The inset of the image below is taken from a 1718 print by Nicolas de Fer, which shows a creature, certainly avian, with a discernible crest.  This appeared simultaneous with another of de Fers' maps, which also includes the same image in Partie Méridionale de la Rivière de Missisipi.  The cartographer Henri Chatelain also incorporated a winged figure approximate to the same area in his Carte De La Nouvelle France.  (It is also important to make note of how reports of large, black birds later emerged from Alton and nearby areas, in 1948, including sightings in St. Louis, Missouri.)

It is from the Huntington Library's website of the de Fer 1718 map (with inset of winged figure as I have appropriated it). 

{Caption:}  Detail of map printed by Nicolas de Fer (1718), "Le Cours du Missisipi, ou de St. Louis Fameuse Rivière de l'Amerique Septentrionale avec Environs de laquelle se trouve la Pais appellee Louisiane.  Dressee sur les Relations et Memoires du Pere Hannepin [sic] et de Mrs. de la Salle, Tonti, Laontan, Ioustel, des Hayes, Joliet, et le Maire &c.."  The winged figure (lower right), depicted in the area east of the Mississippi in the Grande Nation des Illinois, is markedly different from the drawing of the Piasa by William Dennis.  This figure is, relatively, of larger size than any of the other birds or animals figured on the map.

{Caption :}  Inset showing the winged figure in detail.  Brown with red beak, legs, and pair of short crests.  There appears to be a whitish mark across the face.  I have reason to believe that this may actually be the true representation of the Piasa.

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In addition, I will add some notes which I have written about this subject, with much of it verbatim and recapitulating the above.

"Some of these characterizations bring to mind not only newspaper accounts, but legends themselves.  Native traditions.  Discussions in cryptozoology often draw them in to the subject of the thunderbird. 

A petroglyph along the Mississippi River, near what is now Alton, Illinois, was afforded the name Piasa, possibly of Illini origin.  This is was what was believed to have been reported by French explorer Jacques Marquette in 1673, though Marquette refers to multiple images.  The standard translation has been as follows: 

"They are as large as a calf; they 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 so long a tail that it winds all around the body, passing above the head and going back between the legs, ending in a fish's tail."   

As Temple (1956) relays, there is no reference to the Piasa having wings or being avian, though in the 19th century writers on the subject, of whose credibility is questionable, describe it as such, and were even able to present a sketch of it.  This sketch has perpetuated as the legitimate representation of the Piasa and is replete with large wings, prominent antlers, and a long and sinuous tail.  It is very much a literal interpretation.  Where Marquette (Thwaites, 1900; 59: 138-141) meant cheureils [sic] in making comparison of the horns, he was actually referring to those of the Roe Deer, a small, graceful deer with short antlers and whose scientific name Capreolus capreolus means "wild male goat."  At least one English translation of the account has the correct usage, but otherwise, it can thus be argued that Marquette had readily fallen into misinterpretation by American historians, and the image by which the Piasa is now known was endowed with large, prominent antlers, not unlike the familiar White-tailed Deer Odocoileus virginianus of the Americas.

Temple questions the authenticity of 19th-century claimants as having seen the Piasa at all, as by circa 1856 the site was quarried.  Rudolph Friedrich Kurz, who explored the Mississippi in the late 1840s, compared the figure to a "colossal eagle."  (Fittingly, Alton and the nearby St. Louis area would later lay claim to a series of sightings of giant birds in 1948.)  It would make sense to assume that American writers had invented the notion that the Piasa had wings, but the problem is---it very well may have had them.

The 1718 map by Nicolas de Fer, Partie Méridionale de la Rivière de Missisipi, has been, apparently, overlooked on anything written about the Piasa.  From this, a winged figure with a pair of crests can be discerned, situated along the Mississippi near Les Illinois.  It is of relatively larger size than any of the birds or animals depicted.  Other versions included the figures in color, and at least one contemporary of de Fer, Henri Chatelain, incorporated it in his own map of the region.  Again, I suspect that this may be the true representation of the Piasa.  It is difficult to understand what is the basis for this type of image."

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Rudolf Friedrich Kurz, a Swiss painter who ventured to the Mississippi region, remarked as having visited the site, comparing the figure to a large eagle.

"At the end of May Mr. Michel most kindly invited me the second time to go up the Mississippi with him.  On my first voyage the forests were not yet in full leaf; therefore I was unable to prepare sketches, except of some bluffs above Alton.  The bluffs begin near Alton with what is called the Pia⁵ rock, well known from an Indian tradition and an age-old, half-disintegrating hieroglyphic drawing of a colossal eagle, which is said to have played in early days a role similar to that of our dragon, and is reputed to have had, also, his St. George and his secret nook in a fen. 

⁵  Piasa--A mythic being, representing the meteor or firedragon."  (pp. 15--16)

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From all of the above, I see a compelling connection to great raptors such as the Andean Condor, but there are some important discrepancies.  I have in previous posts argued for the condor as a bird known to occur in the very same region of the state of Illinois.  It would be crucial to determine what would be the earliest, extant image of the Piasa petroglyph.  Marquette's drawing of it, which was to accompany his journal, was lost by the time of Shea's translation.  There is a lot more to evaluate when putting the pieces of this mystery together.  Nonetheless, I find it very helpful and can see how it will yield further clues about this subject.  Jacques Marquette was not the only French explorer who wrote of giant birds along the Mississippi.  The relation of Jerome Lalemant, who was present in 1647--1648, also refers to them; for this post I will give terse reference to the latter here.  However, I find that Marquette's is thus by far the more detailed and the less ambiguous passage.

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Additional References.

----Armstrong, Perry.  The Piasa, Or Devil Among the Indians.  E.B. Fletcher, 1887.

----Baynton-Williams, Ashely & Baynton-Williams, Miles.  Maps of North America--The Unveiling of Our Continent.  Quercus, 2008.  [de Fers' map, 88-89]

----Kurz, Rudolf Friedrich.  Journal of Rudolph Friederich Kurz.  The Life and Work of this Swiss Artist.  Fairfield, Washington.  Ye Galleon Press. (no. 19/600 copies).  Edited by J(ohn) N(apoleon) B(rinton) Hewitt, 1937.  Translation from the German by Myrtis Jarrell.  pp. 1--382.

----Shea, John Gilmany.   "Discovery and Exploration of the Mississippi Valley."  Redfield; Clinton Hall, New York.  1852.  {Shea is the first English translation of Marquette's journal.}

----Temple, Wayne.  'The Piasa Bird--Fact or Fiction?'  Illinois State Museum, 1956.

----Thwaites, Reuben Gold.  The Jesuit Relations and Allied Documents.  Burrows Brothers Company; Cleveland, Ohio.  1896--1901.  {See Volume 59 (1900); in particular, pp. 139--140.}

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Written December 19, 2025.

Draft (2025):  Jul. 22, Aug. 22, Sep. 2, Dec. 13

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