Big Muddy River Southern Illinois with "loess", fine grained, wind born deposits. At the edge of the floodplain, dunes, called "loess hills", formed. The Pine Hills are loess hills standing several hundred feet above the floodplain. Prior to the construction of Rend Lake, much of the ancient lake bed was swamp: a forested area that was covered by water through most of the winter, and during wet summers. When the Big Muddy flooded, the water covered the flat bottom of the ancient lake bed for miles either direction from the meandering channel. The upper reaches of the Big Muddy are near Dix, Illinois.
Southern Illinois River-to-River Conference Conference. Southern Illinois River-to-River Conference The Southern Illinois River-to-River Conference (SIRR) is a high school athletic conference represented by 12 schools in southern Illinois. The conference is divided into two divisions. While technically in the same conference each division crowns its own champion, and each winner is regarded as the conference champion as if they were in two separate conferences. Schools are only required to play other schools within their own division although cross-divisional play is very common. Seven of the charter members of the River-to-River Conference were members of the old Southwest Egyptian Conference. Around 1991, the Southwest Egyptian