Louis, Juliet and Father Jacques Marquette were most likely the first Europeans to sail

down the Mississippi River from the Great Lakes.

It was a mapping expedition that began in May of 1673, and by the time they were done,

they made their way down to modern day Arkansas.

But it was something they saw earlier, at the intersection of the Mississippi and Illinois

rivers that stood out to them.

Marquette wrote that they had been navigating some large rocks in the river when they passed

a series of tall limestone cliffs.

When it was safe to glance up, they were surprised by what they saw.

Two enormous paintings covered the surface of the bluff.

With vivid greens and reds, the local Native Americans had drawn a pair of enormous,

otherworldly, monstrous creatures.

In his description, Marquette said that the creatures were sort of a hybrid of a number

of other animals, a chimera, so to speak.

And they were so detailed and masterfully done that he had a hard time believing that

these savages, as he ignorantly called the indigenous people of the area, could have

ever painted them.

And yet here they were.

It was old, too.

By the time Marquette and Jolie Yet saw it, it had most likely been there for centuries,

having been painted by the Native Americans who lived in the Cahokia settlement to the

immediate east.

...