In 1673 Jacques Marquette reported that he and fellow French explorer Louis Jolliet discovered a painting of what was probably two "Water Monsters" on the bluffs of the Mississippi River near present day Alton. By 1700 those pictographic creatures were no longer visible. In 1836 the novelist John Russell described an image cut into the bluff of a legendary dragon-like creature with wings. The creature was called Piasa, "The Bird That Devours Men." That version of the pictograph as well as myths about the Piasa have become prominent in folklore.