Big Muddy River Big Muddy River The Big Muddy River is a river in southern Illinois. It joins the Mississippi River just south of Grand Tower. The Big Muddy has been dammed near Benton, forming Rend Lake. The Big Muddy has a mud bottom for most of its length. The Big Muddy drains a watershed. In 1995, water quality was assessed as "fair" to "good". Pollution sources include agricultural practices, mining and municipalities. The watershed of the Big Muddy was covered by the Illinoian Glacier about 300,000 to 132,000 years before present. The Big Muddy basin formed after the retreat of that glacier.
Big Sandy River (Ohio River tributary) It joins the Ohio between Catlettsburg, Kentucky and Kenova, West Virginia, west of Huntington, West Virginia, at the common boundary between West Virginia, Kentucky, and Ohio. The river is navigable and carries commercial shipping, primarily coal mined in the immediate region. The name of the river comes from the presence of extensive sand bars. The Native American names for the river included "Tatteroa", "Chatteroi", and "Chatterwha" which had similar meaning to the English name. It was known to the Lenape as "Sikeacepe", meaning "Salt River", from the presence of salt licks on the river ("see": Licking River). The name "Big