Big Muddy River Southern Illinois with "loess", fine grained, wind born deposits. At the edge of the floodplain, dunes, called "loess hills", formed. The Pine Hills are loess hills standing several hundred feet above the floodplain. Prior to the construction of Rend Lake, much of the ancient lake bed was swamp: a forested area that was covered by water through most of the winter, and during wet summers. When the Big Muddy flooded, the water covered the flat bottom of the ancient lake bed for miles either direction from the meandering channel. The upper reaches of the Big Muddy are near Dix, Illinois.
Muddy Creek (Lamine River) of Sedalia. The stream passes south of the community of Newland and enters the Lamine River just west of the Pettis-Cooper county line four miles north-northwest of Clifton City at . Muddy Creek was so named on account of its muddy water. Muddy Creek (Lamine River) Muddy Creek is a stream in Johnson and Pettis Counties in the U.S. state of Missouri. It is a tributary of Lamine River. The stream headwaters arise in southeastern Johnson County just east of the community of Sutherland and Missouri Route 23 at . The stream flows northeast and enters Pettis County about three