Big Muddy National Fish and Wildlife Refuge Clark was considerably different from today's river. The historic Missouri was a broad, slow-moving, shallow river with braided channels. These past river conditions created a haven for wildlife, which included vast floodplain forests of giant trees, marshes, and even wet prairies. Today's river is channelized. It is deeper and faster, and controlled by levees, dikes, and other containment structures. These controls make the river more navigable and the surrounding floodplain ideal for agriculture. The Big Muddy Refuge is allowing the Missouri River to be a river again, to enter its floodplain. This occurs during minor flood events. Management has created
Big Muddy Creek (Missouri River tributary) Fort Peck Indian Reservation. It joins the Missouri west of Culbertson. It was explored in 1805 by the Lewis and Clark Expedition, who called it Martha's River in their journals and noticed on their return voyage in 1806 that it had changed its mouth on the Missouri. Along with the Milk River and the Poplar River, it is one of three waterways in Canada that drain into the Gulf of Mexico. Big Muddy Creek has also been known as: Big Muddy River, Little Yellow River, Martha River, Martha's River, Marthas River, Marthy's River and Park River. Big Muddy Creek (Missouri