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St. Joseph River St. Joseph River (Lake Michigan) St. Joseph River (Maumee River) Not to be confused with the nearby St. Joseph River in the Maumee River watershed. The St. Joseph River (locally known as the St. Joe) is a river, approximately 210 mi (338 km) long, in southern Michigan and northern Indiana in the United States. It drains a primarily rural farming area in the watershed of Lake Michigan. It was enormously important in the days of Native Americans and the colonial settlement as a canoe route between Lake Michigan and the watershed of the Mississippi River. The St. Joseph River rises in southern Michigan in Hillsdale County near Baw Beese Lake, within 5 mi (8 km) of the headwaters of the St. Joseph River in the Maumee watershed. It follows a zigzag route generally westward across southern Michigan, dipping into northern Indiana. From its headwaters it flows initially northwest past Hillsdale into southeastern Calhoun County, then turns abruptly southwest to flow past Tekonsha, Union City, and Sherwood. At Three Rivers it is joined from the north by the Rocky and Portage Rivers, then 3 mi (5 km) further southwest by the Prairie River from the east. The river continues southward into northern Indiana, flowing west through Elkhart and South Bend, where it turns abruptly to north to re-enter southwestern Michigan in southeastern Berrien County. In southwestern Michigan it follows a wide meandering route generally northwest through Niles and past Berrien Springs. It enters Lake Michigan between St. Joseph and Benton Harbor, receiving the Paw Paw River from the north approximately 1 mi (1.6) km from its mouth on Lake Michigan. History of The St. Joseph River Early European explorers found Miami and Potawatomi peoples living near the mouth of the St. Joseph River at the site of present-day St. Joseph and Benton Harbor. The river was one of the most significant early transportation routes both to Native Americans and to early French fur trappers in the Illinois Country. It furnished two different portages that allowed nearly continuous travel by canoe among different watersheds of the region. The first major transfer point was at its headwaters in southwestern Michigan, where it furnished a portage to the St. Joseph River of the Maumee River watershed, which drained into Lake Erie. The second major transfer point was at South Bend, Indiana, where a short portage to the nearby Kankakee River allowed access to the Illinois River and subsequently to the Mississippi. Another major access point along river was at Niles, Michigan, where the Old Sauk Trail, a major east-west Indian trail crossed the river. The French established Fort St. Joseph there in 1691. From the early 1830s until 1846, the river bore various commodities from upstream to a busy port at St. Joseph, where they were loaded onto lake boats for shipment to Chicago and elsewhere. On April 11, 1893, a Lake Michigan seiche (a phenomenon similar to an ocean tsunami) pushed a wall of water, 3 to 5 feet (1.5 m) high, up the river at St. Joseph and Benton Harbor. This raised the level of the river by 4 to 5 feet (1.5 m). The cause of the seiche was unknown, but has been attributed to a sudden squall or change in atmospheric pressure. In 1984, the abandoned East Race canal in South Bend, whose outlets were both at the river, was converted into the East Race Waterway 41°40'34?N 86°14'42?W? / ?41.676°N 86.245°W? / 41.676; -86.245, North America's first artificial whitewater waterway and the first of four in the United States. Through the use of movable barriers and obstacles the East Race provides a configurable whitewater course for recreational and competitive canoeing, kayaking and rafting. In 1995 Dorla Null was the first known woman to canoe the entire length of the river. Indiana Cities and towns along the St. Joseph River Bristol Elkhart Mishawaka Osceola
Not to be confused with the nearby St. Joseph River in the Lake Michigan watershed. The St. Joseph River is a tributary of the Maumee River, approximately 100 mi (160 km) long, in southern Michigan, northwestern Ohio, and northeastern Indiana in the United States. It drains a primarily rural farming region in the watershed of Lake Erie. Along with the St. Joseph River of Lake Michigan, it is one of two rivers in the region that somewhat confusingly share the same name but run in generally opposite directions. At the end of the Wisconsin glaciation, the glacier's Erie Lobe retreated toward the northeast leaving large debris deposits called moraines. The St. Joseph formed as a meltwater channel between the north limbs of two of these moraines, the Wabash Moraine on the west and the Fort Wayne Moraine on the east. At that time it joined the St. Marys River to drain into the Wabash River. Later, the shrinkage of Glacial Lake Maumee, the ancestor of modern Lake Erie, brought about the opening of the modern Maumee River, which captured the flow of the St. Joseph and the St. Marys, causing the St. Marys to reverse its course to meet the flow of the St. Joseph almost head-on. The St. Joseph today The St. Joseph rises out a group of small lakes in southern Michigan, in Hillsdale County approximately 5 mi (8 km) southwest of Hillsdale. The headwaters are within 5 mi (8 km) of the those of the St. Joseph River of Lake Michigan. It flows initially southeast, then turns to the southwest to flow across the northwestern corner of Ohio past Montpelier. It enters De Kalb County in northeastern Indiana, flowing southwest past Saint Joe and into the city of Fort Wayne, where it meets the St. Marys River to form the Maumee.
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