Big Muddy River Wisconsinan-era lake. This is why the Big Muddy tends to be so muddy. The Big Muddy joins the Mississippi River in Jackson County near the La Rue-Pine Hills Ecological Area and less than south of Grand Tower Island. The Pine Hills are bluffs overlooking the Big Muddy as it flows through La Rue swamp. During the melting of the Wisconsinan glacier, the Mississippi River flood plain was filled with rushing meltwater in summer. During the winter the flow of meltwater was cut off, and the floodplain was a wide stretch of exposed mud. Winter winds created dust storms that covered
Illinois River (Colorado) Illinois River (Colorado) Illinois River is a tributary of the Michigan River, approximately long, in Jackson County in north central Colorado. It drains part of the North Park basin south of Walden. The Illinois River starts in the Never Summer Mountains near the continental divide, just south of Farview Mountain. It descends northward through a winding gorge, emerging into North Park at approximately above sea level. It flows northward through the valley as a winding stream, past Rand. It passes under State Highway 14 just southeast of Walden and joins the Michigan from the north just north of Walden. A