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.
Muddy River Opera Company Muddy River Opera Company Located in Quincy, Illinois, the Muddy River Opera Company was founded by Mary Anne Scott and Mary Jane McCloskey in 1989 as a non-profit arts organization. The company was incorporated in 1990. Scott and McCloskey had two goals in mind: to make professional operatic performances and educational opportunities available to the tri-state area. In keeping with the mission of its founders, the company consistently produces two to four operas a year. For several years, most MROC productions of foreign-language operas were performed in English translation, though the company has, in recent years, mounted several productions of