Casey Creek is a major tributary of the

Big Muddy River The Big Muddy River is a river in southern Illinois. It joins the Mississippi River just south of Grand Tower. The Big Muddy has been dammed near Benton, forming Rend Lake. The Big Muddy has a mud bottom for most of its length. Hydrography T ...

Illinois Illinois ( ) is a state in the Midwestern United States. Its largest metropolitan areas include the Chicago metropolitan area, and the Metro East section, of Greater St. Louis. Other smaller metropolitan areas include, Peoria and Rockf ...

United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territori ...

. It is about long,U.S. Geological Survey. National Hydrography Dataset high-resolution flowline data
The National Map
, accessed May 13, 2011 measured from the junction of its arm of Rend Lake with the arm formed by the Big Muddy River. Casey Creek is shown on federal maps as Casey Fork, following a 1967 decision by the

U.S. Board on Geographic Names The United States Board on Geographic Names (BGN) is a federal body operating under the United States Secretary of the Interior. The purpose of the board is to establish and maintain uniform usage of geographic names throughout the federal govern ...

. It is named for

Zadok Casey Zadok Casey (March 7, 1796 – September 4, 1862) was an American politician who served as a U.S. representative from Illinois and founded the city of Mount Vernon. Biography Zadok Casey was born in Greene County, Georgia. Not much is know ...

, a congressman from Illinois in the early 19th century.

Course

Casey Creek rises in Marion County, between Iuka and Kell. It flows southward through the center of Kell as a small creek. Like most of the rest of the Big Muddy basin, Casey Creek flows through an ancient lake bed from the

Wisconsin glaciation The Wisconsin Glacial Episode, also called the Wisconsin glaciation, was the most recent glacial period of the North American ice sheet complex. This advance included the Cordilleran Ice Sheet, which nucleated in the northern North American Cord ...

. This gives it a broad, flat floodplain that is filled with shallow water in wet weather. Heading south, the lake bed becomes recognizable about north of Mt. Vernon, as flat ground that meets the older hills at an abrupt angle. In the north, the flat valley bottom is only a few hundred feet wide, but it widens toward the south. The

Union Pacific The Union Pacific Railroad , legally Union Pacific Railroad Company and often called simply Union Pacific, is a freight-hauling railroad that operates 8,300 locomotives over routes in 23 U.S. states west of Chicago and New Orleans. Union Pac ...

Railroad follows Casey Creek from Kell down to Mt. Vernon. This railroad was originally built as the C&EI around 1909. The railroad crosses the creek several times during its descent to Mt. Vernon. This route includes several cuts into the hills adjacent to the creek, resulting in bluffs. The

Norfolk Southern The Norfolk Southern Railway is a Class I freight railroad in the United States formed in 1982 with the merger of Norfolk and Western Railway and Southern Railway. With headquarters in Atlanta, the company operates 19,420 route miles (31, ...

(formerly the Southern Railway) railroad enters the Casey Creek valley, via Limestone Creek, to the north of Mt. Vernon. The two railroads enter the northeastern corner of Mt. Vernon on opposite sides of the creek. At full flood, Casey Creek rages between the two railroad embankments, which are about apart. There is a large bluff next to the Norfolk Southern tracks at the northeast corner of Mt. Vernon. Casey Creek has eroded into bedrock at the base of the bluff, exposing shale. This is the top of the Pennsylvanian, coal-bearing

cyclothems In geology, cyclothems are alternating stratigraphy, stratigraphic sequences of Marine (ocean), marine and non-marine sediments, sometimes interbedded with coal seams. Historically, the term was defined by the European coal geologists who worked ...

under Mt. Vernon. The Mt. Vernon sewage treatment plant discharges to Casey Creek to the southeast of the city. At low flows, this accounts for most of the flow in the creek. South of Mt. Vernon, in its natural state, Casey Creek entered the Bakerville Bottoms. This was a classic swamp consisting of hardwood trees that were subjected to seasonal flooding. Today this is a part of the swamp created by the headwaters of Rend Lake. The Big Muddy and Casey Creek have been dammed near their confluence in Franklin County, forming

Rend Lake Rend Lake is a long, wide reservoir located in Southern Illinois in Franklin and Jefferson Counties near the town of Benton. It contains 18,900 acres (76 km2) of water, stores of water, and supplies over 15 million gallons of water pe ...

. The eastern arm of the lake is the former Casey Creek bottomland. The Casey Creek Subimpoundment Dam is located upstream of Rend Lake, forming a swamp that protects the lake to some degree from siltation.

Cities, towns and counties

The following cities and towns are drained by Casey Creek: *

Bonnie Bonnie, is a Scottish given name and is sometimes used as a descriptive reference, as in the Scottish folk song, My Bonnie Lies over the Ocean. It comes from the Scots language word "bonnie" (pretty, attractive), or the French bonne (good). That ...

* Dix (partially, including the sewage treatment outfall) * Ina * Kell * Mt. Vernon * Texico Portions of the following counties are drained by Casey Creek: * Franklin County * Jefferson County *

Marion County, Illinois Marion County is a county located in the U.S. state of Illinois. According to the 2010 census, it had a population of 39,437. Its county seat is Salem. Marion County comprises the Centralia, IL Micropolitan Statistical Area, which is include ...

Lakes and tributaries

The following artificial lakes are located in the Casey Creek watershed: *Jaycee Lake (formerly known as Heil Lake) *Miller Lake *

The major tributaries of Casey Creek include Limestone Creek, Seven Mile Creek, Dodds Creek and Atchison Creek. Gun Creek, which enters Rend Lake on the east side, might also be considered a Casey Creek tributary.

References

{{authority control Rivers of Illinois Tributaries of the Mississippi River Rivers of Marion County, Illinois Rivers of Jefferson County, Illinois Rivers of Franklin County, Illinois

Course

Cities, towns and counties

Lakes and tributaries

See also

References