Kaskaskia River

Catchment area of ​​the Kaskaskia River

Kaskaskia River shortly before it flows into the Mississippi River

It rises west of Champaign and flows south to open about 16 km north of Chester in the Mississippi River.

He is the second longest river in Illinois and drains about 10.2 % of the national territory. By 1881 the river meets the Mississippi resulted only in Chester, but this year changed the course of the Mississippi, so that it now flows through the former bed of the Kaskaskia on the route between the current confluence and Chester. However, The course of the Mississippi is still the state border between Missouri and Illinois, so now the area around the town of Kaskaskia ( from the 1818 to 1820 the capital of Illinois was ) located west of the Mississippi. Two dams keep the river back to form reservoirs - Lake Shelbyville in Shelby County (Illinois ) and the Carlye Lake, Clinton County ( Illinois).