Big Boggy Creek

Big Boggy Creek rises three miles southwest of Bay City and two miles west of the Colorado River in the Bay Prairie of Matagorda County (at 28°55' N, 95°59' W) and runs southeast for twenty-three miles to its mouth on the Gulf Intracoastal Waterway, just off East Matagorda Bay (at 28°44' N, 95°50' W). The stream is intermittent in its upper reaches. Before the construction of the waterway the creek emptied directly into the bay. Big Boggy Creek forms Boggy Lake about a mile before its mouth. As it nears the coast it forms the western border of Big Boggy National Wildlife Refuge. Upstream the terrain is low-rolling to flat and locally dissected, surfaced by deep to shallow sandy and clay loams that support grasses and hardwoods. Near the coast the terrain changes to a saltwater marshland that supports diverse plant and animal species including waterfowl, shrimp, and numerous grasses.