Elsah, Illinois
We do know that evidence shows that nearby Cahokia — home to 30,000 people, site of a great pyramid, and the greatest pre-Columbian city north of Mexico — utterly collapsed, perhaps as late as between 1400-1450 AD.37 In spite of much speculation, the cause of Cahokia’s final decline cannot be named with certainty. Was the Chinese exploration of America related to this fall? A new examination of the archeological record might be in order.
ILLINOIS RIVER
Our research has pinpointed the location of the Piasa to a bluff in the tiny hamlet of Elsah, Illinois. We believe that this particular site was selected by the Chinese explorers because it was the first large bluff downstream of the Mississippi -Illinois Rivers junction that had a source of clean drinking water, in the form of an adjacent crystal-clear brook. This bluff is located about four miles south of the junction of the Illinois and Mississippi Rivers. (Independently from us, Gavin Menzies has concluded that a Chinese base existed near the northern headwaters of the Illinois River, on Lake Michigan.) An Imperial lung constructed at Elsah would have been situated at an ideal location. It would have established a Chinese claim to both rivers and pointed the way to the Lake Michigan base to any comrades traveling upstream from the Gulf of Mexico.
Logically, Elsah is where an Imperial lung would have been constructed, and that is the precise location of the Piasa.
Mark & Laurie Nickless can be reached at roguerabbit@earthlink.net or thenicklessfamily@gmail.com
END NOTES
1Thwaits, Ruben Gold, ed., Jesuit Relations and Allied Documents, vol. 59.
2 Masthay, Dr. Carl, Ph.D., Linguistics “Piasa”, English translation courtesy of Dr. Masthay & Michael McCaffery. (12-8-04).
3 Mansfield, Rose Helen “Did You Know? ? ? It Happened in St. Clair County: A potpourri of local history” Historical 1983b http://216.125.204.247/Cahokia_Beginnings/Historical%20Journals/historical_1983b.htm
4 Cothen, Tana. “The Controversial Piasa: a Partial History of the Legend.” http://www.angelfire.com/mo3/il-co-mo/Piasa.com
5 Cothen.
6 Welker, Glenn. “Legend of the Piasa.” http://www.indians.org/welker/piasa.htm
7 Menzies, Gavin, 1421: the Year the Chinese Discovered America. (New York: HarperCollins, 2003), p. 19-56.
8Menzies, Gavin. “Zhou Wen Voyage”, (12-7-04).
9 Menzies, 1421, p. 215-277.
10 “Legend of the Yellow Emperor”, Chinese Dragon, Wikepedia, the free encyclopedia. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chinese_Dragon
11 Masthay, Dr. Carl, “Piasa(w) petroglyph” (1-4-04)
12 Wu, William, “Re: picture and minor corrections”, (3-1-05) & telephone conversations on average heights of Chinese sailors during period in question.
13 Cothen.
14 “The Mysterious Piasa Creature: Part 2 of 3” Mysterious World. http://www.mysteriousworld.com/Journal/1999/Spring/Piasa02/
15 Lewis, Henry. “Der Piasa Felsen,” Das Illustrierte Mississippithal, (Dusseldorf: Arnz & Company, 1857.)
16 Taylor, Troy, “Thunderbirds Over Illinois: Strange Things Are Happening in the Sky!” History & Hauntings of Illinois http://www.prairieghosts.com/thunderbirds.html
17Nickless, Laurie L., “The Forgotten Origin of the Piasa”, colored pencil rendering based on lithograph entitled “the Piasa” by Henry Lewis.
18 Menzies, Gavin, “Blastless demolition agents” (12-7-04)
19 Steiner, Stan, “The Chinese Who Built America: The Chinese Railroad Men,” Central Pacific Railroad Photographic History Museum, http://cprr.org/Museum/Fusang.html excerpts from Fusang: The Chinese who built America (New York: Harper & Row Publishers, 1980)
20Squier, E. G. Observations, On the Aboriginal Monuments of the Mississippi Valley; the Character of the Ancient Earth-works, and the structure, contents, and Purposes of the Mounds; with Notices of the Minor Remains of Ancient Art. (New York: Bartlett & Welford, 1847). Squierís Aboriginal Monuments 1847, http://www.siu.edu/~anthro/muller/Squier_1847.htm
21 Carol Dias-Granados and James R. Duncan, The Petroglyphs of Missouri (Tuscaloosa and London: The University of Alabama Press, 2000), p. 42.
22 Dias-Granados and Duncan. P. 104-106.
23 Welker.
24Menzies, 1421, p. 203.
25 Begg, Patricia, “Willows and Windmills: Cobalt – Blue”, Ceramics and Glass Circle of Australia Inc. http://www.ceramicsglasscircleaustralia.org/catwillowwindtaster.html
26 Wu, William, “Cobalt based pigments” (12-20-04).
27 Dias-Granados and Duncan. P. 161-173.
28 Masthay & McCaffery translation.
29 Squier.
30 Squier.
31 Dias-Granados and Duncan. p. 125-126.
32 Dias-Granados and Duncan. p. 211.
33 Masthay, Dr. Carl, Ph.D., Linguistics “The Piasa(w) ‘Monster-Bird’ of Alton, Illinois”, Piasaw Petroglyph, http://www.jubchuqun.com/tsalagi/piasaw.htm
34 Jung, Jim, “Piasa bird origins” (2-16-05)
35 Clark, William, “Big Manitou pictographs”. Lewis and Clark Journals (June 5-7, 1804).
36 “Cholera”, Cholera, Wikepedia, the free encyclopedia. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cholera
37 “Hero, Hawk, and Open Hand: American Indian Art of the Ancient Midwest and South.” Saint Louis Art Museum, 18 March 2005.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
Begg, Patricia, “Willows and Windmills: Cobalt – Blue”, Ceramics and Glass Circle of Australia Inc. http://www.ceramicsglasscircleaustralia.org/catwillowwindtaster.html
“Cholera”, Cholera, Wikepedia, the free encyclopedia. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cholera
Clark, William. Lewis and Clark Journals (June 5-7, 1804).
Cothen, Tana. “The Controversial Piasa: a Partial History of the Legend.” http://www.angelfire.com/mo3/il-co-mo/Piasa.com
Carol Dias-Granados and James R. Duncan, The Petroglyphs of Missouri (Tuscaloosa and London: The University of Alabama Press, 2000).
“Hero, Hawk, and Open Hand: American Indian Art of the Ancient Midwest and South.” Saint Louis Art Museum, 4 March — 30 May, 2005.
Jung, Jim, “Piasa bird origins” (2-16-05). Available from Mark & Laurie Nickless at roguerabbit@jcn.net
“Legend of the Yellow Emperor”, Chinese Dragon, Wikepedia, the free encyclopedia. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chinese_Dragon
Lewis, Henry. Das Illustrierte Mississippithal, (Dusseldorf: Arnz & Company, 1857).
Mansfield, Rose Helen “Did You Know? ? ? It Happened in St. Clair County: A potpourri of local history” Historical 1983b http://216.125.204.247/Cahokia_Beginnings/Historical%20Journals/historical_1983b.htm
Maruna, Scott, The Curious Person’s Guide to the History and Mystery of the Piasa Bird (Jacksonville, Illinois: Swamp Gas Book Company, 2005.
Masthay, Dr. Carl, Ph.D., Linguistics “Piasa”, English translation courtesy of Dr. Masthay & Michael McCaffery. (12-8-04). Available from Mark & Laurie Nickless at roguerabbit@jcn.net
Masthay, Dr. Carl, Ph.D., Linguistics “The Piasa(w) ‘Monster-Bird’ of Alton, Illinois”, Piasaw Petroglyph, http://www.jubchuqun.com/tsalagi/piasaw.htm
Masthay, Dr. Carl, “Piasa(w) petroglyph” (1-4-04). Available from Mark & Laurie Nickless at roguerabbit@jcn.net
Menzies, Gavin, 1421: the Year the Chinese Discovered America. (New York: HarperCollins.
Menzies, Gavin, “Blastless demolition agents” (12-7-04). Available from Mark & Laurie Nickless at roguerabbit@jcn.net
Menzies, Gavin. “Zhou Wen voyage”, (12-7-04). Available from Mark & Laurie Nickless at roguerabbit@jcn.net
“The Mysterious Piasa Creature: Part 2 of 3” Mysterious World. http://www.mysteriousworld.com/Journal/1999/Spring/Piasa02/
Nickless, Laurie L., “Traditional-style Double Lung Design Rendered In Marquette’s Stated Color Scheme for Piasa.” a work in colored pencil.
Nickless, Laurie L., “The Forgotten Origin of the Piasa”, colored pencil rendering based on lithograph entitled “Der Piasa Felsen,” by Henry Lewis.
Squier, E. G. Observations, On the Aboriginal Monuments of the Mississippi Valley; the Character of the Ancient Earth-works, and the structure, contents, and Purposes of the Mounds; with Notices of the Minor Remains of Ancient Art. (New York: Bartlett & Welford, 1847). Squier’s Aboriginal Monuments 1847, http://www.siu.edu/~anthro/muller/Squier_1847.htm
Steiner, Stan, “The Chinese Who Built America: The Chinese Railroad Men,” Central Pacific Railroad Photographic History Museum, http://cprr.org/Museum/Fusang.html excerpts from Fusang: The Chinese who built America (New York: Harper & Row Publishers, 1980).
Taylor, Troy, “Thunderbirds Over Illinois: Strange Things Are Happening in the Sky!” History & Hauntings of Illinois http://www.prairieghosts.com/thunderbirds.html
Thwaits, Ruben Gold, ed., Jesuit Relations and Allied Documents, vol. 59.
Welker, Glenn. “Legend of the Piasa.” http://www.indians.org/welker/piasa.htm
Wu, William, “Re: picture and minor revisions”, (3-1-05), and telephone conversation on average heights of Chinese sailors during period in question. Available from Mark & Laurie Nickless at roguerabbit@jcn.net.
Wu, William, “Cobalt based pigments” (12-20-04). Available from Mark & Laurie Nickless at roguerabbit@jcn.net.
