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
Muddy River (Massachusetts) of the Muddy River into the tidal Charles was much wider. It formed the eastern Brookline border with Boston and Roxbury (depending on the year), from Brookline's incorporation in 1705 until Boston's annexation of Allston–Brighton in 1873. The present form of the river and surrounding parks was created by the Emerald Necklace project, between 1880 and 1900. Under the direction of designer Frederick Law Olmsted, the project reclaimed marshland, creating sculpted and planted riverbanks. The Muddy River is mentioned by John Winthrop, in his famous "Journal of John Winthrop," as the site of an unidentified flying object in March 1638