The original Piasa Bird was a petroglyph (a prehistoric carving, usually pictorial, gouged into a rock surface). According to legend, in the years long before the Europeans arrived in the Meeting of the Great Rivers area. The current version was put in place in 1998. The limestone rock quality on this site is unsuited for holding an image, and the painting must be regularly restored.
Read moreLincoln Douglas Square
Lincoln Douglas Square commemorates the seventh and last debate held in 1858 between Abraham Lincoln and Senator Stephen A. Douglas Alton with a monument to this historic event.
Read moreKoenig House
The Alton Museum of History and Art maintains the Koenig House which was built in 1887 by a German American Engineer employed by the Illinois Glass Company. The house was designed by Lucas Pfeiffenberger who became a well known architect in the St. Louis area. The home was occupied by several generations of the original owner until it was given to the Museum.
Read moreBenjamin Godfrey Memorial Chapel
The Godfrey Memorial Chapel was built in 1854 and was originally located across the highway from its current location. The Illinois Department of Conservation reported in 1977 that "compared to other surviving Greek Revival churches in Illinois, the building certainly stands on its own. There is nothing like it in the state. It is one of Illinois' impressive Civil War structures.”
Read moreAlton Federal Prison Site
A State marker designates the remnants of a portion of a cellblock of the Alton Federal Prison as the site of the First Illinois Prison, built in 1831. During the Civil War, the prison reopened as a military detention camp because of overcrowding in the two St. Louis prisons that housed Confederate prisoners of war. A smallpox epidemic in December, 1862 killed as many as 2,200 prisoners.
Read moreConfederate Cemetery and Memorial
Approximately 300 prisoners and Union soldiers who died of smallpox were buried on a nearby island (once called Sunflower Island and currently under water) where a quarantine was set up. Those who were not buried on the island were interred in a special plot in North Alton, known today as the Confederate Soldiers' Cemetery.
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