The River Bend is a small region in western central Illinois and Southern Illinois that comprises parts of three counties: Madison, Calhoun, and Jersey. The name comes from a section of Mississippi River that flows roughly west to east instead of the usual north to south, causing a bend in the river. In this area, two other major rivers, the Missouri and the Illinois join the Mississippi River. This section of the Mississippi River is known as the Alton Lake
The part in Madison County that locals consider part of the River Bend is the section north of Interstate 270 and west of Illinois Route 159.
Famous quotes containing the words river and/or bend:
“the folk-lore
Of each of the senses; call it, again and again,
The river that flows nowhere, like a sea.”
—Wallace Stevens (1879–1955)
“He bends to the order of the seasons, the weather, the soils and crops, as the sails of a ship bend to the wind. He represents continuous hard labor, year in, year out, and small gains. He is a slow person, timed to Nature, and not to city watches. He takes the pace of seasons, plants and chemistry. Nature never hurries: atom by atom, little by little, she achieves her work.”
—Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882)