"A creature of local legend dating back to 1673 when Father Jacques Marquette, in recording his famous journey down the Mississippi River with Lousis Joliet, described the Pisa as a grotesque monster painted high on the bluffs along the Mississippi River, where the city of Alton, Illinois, now stands.

According to Marquette"s diary, the Piasa "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 it passed around the body, over the head and between the legs"

~Source: Literature- Zell Ravenheart, Oberon, "A Wizards Bestiary/by Oberon Zell-Ravenheart and Ash "LeopardDancer" DeKirk" New Page Books, 2007