Piasa Bird
The 'Piasa Bird' is a man-eating winged monster popularized by an 1836 newspaper account by John Russell, who claimed the Illini called it the 'Piasa.' No genuine pre-contact Illini or Miami tradition describes such a bird; the real pictograph at Alton, Illinois, destroyed in the 1800s and later repainted, most likely depicted an Underwater Panther, which has no wings.