In what seems almost like a parody of bad naming, central Illinois actually contains two separate rivers, both named the Vermilion River. They both have sources roughly in the neighborhood of Paxton, Gibson City and Roberts, north of Champaign. One of them (marked in various shades of red on the map) flows northwest from there, meeting the Illinois River at Oglesby. The other one (marked in shades of blue) flows southeast, meeting the Wabash at Cayuga, Indiana. The Vermilion River that flows into the Illinois River divides into two branches a little ways upstream from Pontiac: the North Fork and the … Continue reading The Vermilion River