Menominee River (Illinois) Menominee River (Illinois) The Menominee River is an tributary of the Mississippi River, which it joins in Jo Daviess County, Illinois. The name "Menominee" refers to the Menominee, a Native American people. The name means "good seed" or "wild rice". The Menominee rises in Grant County, Wisconsin at the confluence of Louisburg and Kieler creeks one mile south of Kieler just east of U.S. Route 151 and flows south past Sandy Hook and enters Illinois just south of Wisconsin Highway 11. It continues south through the northwestern corner of Illinois for about four miles before reaching its confluence with the
Big Thompson River tributary flows east, through the town of Glen Haven, where it merges with the Big Thompson River in the town of Drake, in the Big Thompson Canyon. From Lake Estes, the river descends 1/2 mile (800 m) in elevation through the mountains in the spectacular 25 mi (40 km) Big Thompson Canyon, emerging from the foothills west of Loveland. It flows eastward, south of Loveland across the plains into Weld County and joins the South Platte approximately 5 mi (8 km) south of Greeley. It receives the Little Thompson River approximately four mi (6 km) upstream from its mouth. Water