Allen County, Indiana

River Information

2015/08/11: On the rivers in downtown Fort Wayne Indiana by AroundFortWayne posted July 5, 2016 on YouTube
On the St. Joseph, St. Marys and Maumee Rivers in downtown Fort Wayne Indiana and as far as one can navigate.
Special thanks to Josh Harper for providing the AroundFortWayne time lapse camera, Captain Dan Wire for the pontoon ride and Alec Johnson - smartalecproductions.com - for the soundtrack

  1. River fun facts:

    August 18, 2022 post by Friends of the Rivers on Facebook:

    River fun facts: 💦

    Many people think rivers flow from north to south, but Fort Wayne’s rivers are great examples of rivers that don’t flow in the direction you think they might.

    Fort Wayne sits on what is known as the St. Lawrence continental divide that separates the Great Lakes Basin from the Gulf of Mexico watershed.

    Although the land around Fort Wayne is flat, the city is on a small ridge that resulted from receding glaciers that covered the area in the Ice Age.

    The St. Joseph River begins in Hillsdale County, Michigan. It flows southeast into Ohio where it turns and flows southwest to Fort Wayne.

    The St. Marys River begins near Celina, Ohio. It flows northwest into Fort Wayne where it meets the St. Joseph River near Headwaters Park.

    The two rivers combine to form the Maumee River. It flows in a northeasterly direction and ends at Toledo where it dumps into Lake Erie.

    ❓ What happened to the apostrophe in the St. Marys River? ❓ According ot the U.S. Board of Geographic Names, it is correct to write St. Marys River and incorrect to write St. Mary’s River. This is because the river is named St. Marys and isn’t a river that belongs to St. Mary.

  2. Fort Wayne Riparian Management Plan at Biohabitats has the 193 page August 14, 2015 CITY OF FORT WAYNE RIPARIAN MANAGEMENT PLAN FINAL. One page CITY OF FORT WAYNE PLANNING AND POLICY OFFICE Fort Wayne Riparian Management Plan, Mentioned in Letters to the Editor as Riparian work to rivers too often goes unnoticed by Dan Wire in the October 12, 2023 The Journal Gazette newspaper
  3. Fort Wayne: riverfront heritage and historic building reuse posted August 4, 2018 on Archives of Hoosier History Live podcast on Saturdays, noon to 1 p.m. ET on WICR 88.7 FM. The introduction begins with The state's second-largest city is located at the confluence of three waterways: the St. Joseph, St. Mary's and Maumee rivers. Against the backdrop of a vibrant revival of the downtown riverfront in Fort Wayne, we will explore the impact of the rivers on the city as well as current initiatives to reuse historic riverfront buildings. A significant aspect of the city's river history involves the Wabash & Erie Canal that began operating in 1835 and came right through Fort Wayne. ... Nelson will be joined by two studio guests who will serve as our guides through Fort Wayne's riverfront history and the new ways it's being showcased: Allen County historian Tom Castaldi, who writes a history column for Fort Wayne Monthly magazine and hosts "On the Heritage Trail" segments about local history for WBOI-FM Radio. And Fort Wayne historian Randy Harter, the owner of Fort Wayne Food Tours, which offers downtown walking tours exploring the city's history, architecture and food heritage. Randy also is the author of several books, including Legendary Locals of Fort Wayne (Arcadia Publishing, 2015) - fellow guest Tom Castaldi is among those profiled in it - and Fort Wayne Through Time, which will be published this fall.
  4. Allen County Geology with more maps, photos and information at Indiana Geological &Water Survey Indiana University.
  5. Hannah's Ford marker along the river.
  6. The Heritage Trail - Fort Wayne River Systems 3.5 minute audio walk on the Heritage Trail by Tom Castaldi, local historianApril 1, 2013 on 89.1 WBOI Northeast Indiana Public Radio. One of almost 50 historic audio walks.
  7. Indiana's muddy river navigability laws could impact Fort Wayne's riverfront plans Fort Wayne Parks director said the city is aware of the situation by Kevin Kilbane published September 15, 2017 on The News-Sentinel newspaper.
  8. Little River Wetlands Project in the watershed of the Little River, a major tributary of the Wabash River on the west side of city, bald eagles frequent area, since 1990 1,000 restored acres of marsh and prairie of former 25,000 acre Great Marsh.Little River Valley has videos and lots of information at the Little River Wetland Project..
  9. River Greenway Trail - 20 miles of trails along the banks of the St. Mary's, St. Joseph and the Maumee Rivers
  10. September 10, 2021 post by the Center for Applied Earth Science and Engineering Research - CAESER on Facebook:

    The U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) National Water Information System and the National Water Dashboard got a new interactive interface! This online tool is always our first stop for checking the river stage while planning to go out and do river research, or to obtain historical stage data. Take a look and for more information, join the public lecture on September 23 to hear from the USGS how to navigate through it!

    USGS National Water Dashboard for Indiana shows real-time water data collected at U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) observation stations in context with weather-related data from other public sources.

  11. USGS Streamer - Explore Americaa's larger streats as you trace upstream to their source or downstream to where they empty. Learn more about your stream traces and the places they pass through in brief or detailed reports. See weather radar and near real-time streamflow conditions.
  12. USGS Water Data for the Nation has a clickable National Water Information System: Mapper to zoom in on states, counties, cities to individual data collection points. From Getting his feet wet for science photo captioned: Caleb Artz, a physical scientist with the U.S. Geological Survey, wades into the Maumee River on Wednesday to conduct a discharge measurement for the Hosey Dam. Data from this and other collections is available online at waterdata.usgs.gov. Arman Johnson December 29, 2022 in The Journal Gazette newspaper.
    1. USGS 04183038 BLACK CREEK NEAR HARLAN, IN
    2. USGS 04180000 CEDAR CREEK NEAR CEDARVILLE, IN
    3. USGS 04182755 JUNK DITCH AT FORT WAYNE, IN
    4. USGS 04182950 MAUMEE RIVER AT COLISEUM BLVD AT FORT WAYNE, IN
    5. USGS 04182830 MAUMEE RIVER AT COLUMBIA ST AT FORT WAYNE, IN
    6. USGS 04182900 MAUMEE RIVER AT FORT WAYNE, IN
    7. USGS 04183000 MAUMEE RIVER AT NEW HAVEN, IN
    8. USGS 04180500 ST. JOSEPH RIVER NEAR FORT WAYNE, IN
    9. USGS 04180610 ST. JOSEPH R AT PARNELL AV AT FORT WAYNE, IN
    10. USGS 04182769 ST. MARYS RIVER AT MAIN ST. AT FORT WAYNE, IN
    11. USGS 04182000 ST. MARYS RIVER NEAR FORT WAYNE, IN
    12. USGS 04182808 SPY RUN CREEK NEAR PARK DRIVE AT FORT WAYNE, IN
  13. MamaJo - see Water Filtration section. It’s part of an 18-year, $240 million effort to reduce the number of combined sewer overflows into Fort Wayne’s three rivers – the St. Joseph, St. Marys and the Maumee – from an average of 76 overflows per year to four. The St. Joseph is the first watershed that will reach compliance with the consent decree, Wirtz [Matthew Wirtz, City Utilities deputy director] said. Overflows occur when high water volumes, such as what might occur during heavy rainfall, back up the city’s combined sewer system, causing it to alleviate the pressure by discharging into the rivers. The St. Joseph River typically overflows 12 to 15 times a year, causing sewers to dump 9 million gallons of wastewater into the river. Through some earlier sewer separation projects, City Utilities has been able to decrease that amount to about 5 million gallons per year. "All those overflows (on the St. Joseph River) will be reduced to one or less in a typical year," Wirtz said. He said this portion of the project will be completed four years ahead of schedule and is expected to come in significantly under budget. Once the project is complete, it’s expected to discharge only about half a million gallons into the river in a typical year – a 97 percent decrease from the current overflow levels. Copied from Watershed year for St. Joe River Will achieve compliance with 2008 decree next year by Dave Gong published December 25, 2014 in The Journal Gazette newspaper.
  14. Watersheds - Art Meets Science, These Beautiful Maps Capture the Rivers That Pulse Through Our World Cartographer Robert Szucs creates colorful maps of the watersheds that creep across states, countries, continents and the globe by Anna White March 25, 2019 in Smithsonian Magazine and shared October 4, 2022 on their Facebook page.
  15. Catch Fort Wayne on the cover of Indianapolis Monthly's August publication! With three scenic rivers flowing through...

    Posted by Visit Fort Wayne on Monday, August 16, 2021

    Monday, August 16, 2021 post by Visit Fort Wayne on Facebook:

    Catch Fort Wayne on the cover of Indianapolis Monthly's August publication!

    With three scenic rivers flowing through our city, Fort Wayne offers water trail adventures for all, with dining, arts and culture, and history experiences just steps away. >> See the full article: Indiana’s River Towns: Streaming This Summer

    Featured: Riverfront Fort Wayne | Fort Wayne Outfitter's Bike Depot & Bike Hub | Historic Fort Wayne | Fort Wayne Museum of Art | Arts United | Science Central | The Bradley | Landing Beer Company | Nawa | The Landing Fort Wayne | 📸: Cover photo by Stephen J. Bailey

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