Big Muddy River Here the outline of the Wisconsinan Era lake bed is evident in what were the northern reaches of the ancient lake, where the lake bed was only a few hundred feet wide. The steep Illinoian hills are suddenly truncated where they meet the flat bottom of the Wisconsinan Era lake bed. Here the tributaries of the Big Muddy are tiny, intermittent streams, meandering though these narrow valleys at the headwaters. The Big Muddy basin contains a significant portion of the planet's coal reserves. Most of this is hidden under its deep mud. At a few places the river has eroded
Saline River (Illinois) Saline River (Illinois) The Saline River is a tributary of the Ohio River, approximately long, in the Southern Illinois region of the U.S. state of Illinois. The river drains a large section of southeast Illinois, with a drainage basin of . The major tributaries include the South Fork, Middle Fork and North Fork, all lying within the Saline Valley. The once meandering swampy river was important among Native Americans and early settlers as a source of salt from numerous salt springs where it was commercially extracted in the early 19th century. From 1807 to 1818, Illinois paid the United States