H6104

Mighty Mississippi

Sailboat & Cliffs, IL

Cover Announcement

As most of you know, one of my favorite topics is wildlife. Represented in this set will be fish, birds, mammals, and reptiles. For the Illinois cover I chose to illustrate the sturgeon. They are very large fish found throughout the Northern Hemisphere and were distributed in early geographieal history. They grow to over 2,000 pounds, don't mature until about age 12, and live 70 years or longer. The hand painting on this one exceeded my expectations as the big fish cruises the river bottom. The Illinois River, a major tributary, enters the Mississippi near Grafton, Illinois. Native Americans and French explorers used it as their main route between the Great Lakes and the Mississippi River.