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Subject: Re: New research lends credence to thunderbird accounts?
From: Southlander posted Tue, Sep 15 2009, 12:15pm 
Piasa - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Never heard of the Piasa bird so I googled it and came up with this wikipedia article (I know I know) but its a starting place to read other info about this bird.
Subject: Re: New research lends credence to thunderbird accounts?
From: Cherokee posted Tue, Sep 15 2009, 1:01pm 
You've never heard of the Piasa bird? Wow. VERY cool story indeed, and it's only 30 minutes from me. I need to go take a pic with me under it, so you can see the size of the mural. I would be well under the feet, and I'm 5'3".

Marquette was one of the first to speak of it. Even though it had been there forever. Native American braves would go on hunting parties down the river in canoes, and when they passed the mural, they would shoot arrows at it. If they missed, they turned around and went back. Supposedly bad hunting if they missed.

here is another page on it with some different pics. The original pic has been changed so much.

href="http://www2.ic.edu/cochran/ClassPages/205Spring03/Downs/TheLegendofthePiasa.html" target="_new">The Legend of the Piasa
Subject: Re: New research lends credence to thunderbird accounts?
From: Cherokee posted Tue, Sep 15 2009, 9:28pm 
I guess it would help if I posted the link, yes?



The legend of the Piasa
Subject: Re: New research lends credence to thunderbird accounts?
From: hroth posted Wed, Sep 16 2009, 1:58pm 
How interesting! I think large birds are one of the least likely cryptids, but you gotta love local lore.
Subject: Re: New research lends credence to thunderbird accounts?
From: MJLehde posted Wed, Sep 16 2009, 10:50pm 
Alton is just around the river bend from me so I know the story well. That mural used to be further up the river at a spot where every year the boyscouts would repaint it by repelling down the cliff. One year sonmebody, who didn't even have a kid in scouting, brought a suit claiming that it was too dangerous and forced the scouts to stop repainting the mural. The city replaced it withb a giant a metal image that hung on the cliff in it's place, it looked about as authentic as that u-tube video where the bigfoot flips the camera the bird, and finally the mural was repainted where it is now. The original painting was at a place on the river that no longer exists. While I love the legend I've never thought it any sort of evidence that Thunderbirds were real.
Subject: Re: New research lends credence to thunderbird accounts?
From: Ursustyrannis posted Mon, Sep 28 2009, 2:10am 
The Paisa may have been a bull shark. Very exaggerated but then again, for a people with virtually no natural predators, the bull shark might have spawned great legends.
Subject: Re: New research lends credence to thunderbird accounts?
From: MJLehde posted Wed, Oct 7 2009, 6:16pm 
I'll grant that Bull Sharks have been known to go up the river as far as Alton and that legends like tales grow in the telling, but even so the whole "flying thing" is hard to get away from if you're trying to make a shark the source of the story.
Subject: Re: New research lends credence to thunderbird accounts?
From: LadyGreenEyes posted Sat, Sep 19 2009, 3:07am 
You know, I have seen this before, but it occurred to me that the things on the head resemble the horns of a great horned owl. Anyone know of an owl similar that would have been much larger? Certainly, that could be a threat to people, depending on the temperament of the things.


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