The St. Joseph River (Miami-Illinois: Kociihsasiipi) is an U.S. Geological Survey. National Hydrography Dataset high-resolution flowline data. The National Map, accessed May 19, 2011 tributary of the Maumee River in northwestern Ohio and northeastern Indiana in the United States, with headwater tributaries rising in southern Michigan. It drains a primarily rural farming region in the watershed of Lake Erie.
The St. Joseph River of Lake Michigan is an entirely separate river that rises in western Michigan, dips into Indiana, and flows west into Lake Michigan.
Origin 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 River forms in northern Williams County, Ohio, at the confluence of the East and West branches at . Both branches rise in southern Hillsdale County, Michigan. The headwaters of the East Branch are within of those of the St. Joseph River of Lake Michigan. Both branches initially flow southeast, then turn to the southwest to flow across the northwestern corner of Ohio past Montpelier. The St. Joseph 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 River at . The US Army Corps of Engineers built a flood control project in Fort Wayne that includes a floodwall and upper roadway along the St. Joseph River. (See photo)
Tributaries From the mouth: (left) Becketts Run (right) Tiernan Ditch (left) Ely Run (left) Cedar Creek Cedarville Reservoir (left) Nettlehorst Ditch (left) Warner Ditch (right) Wittmer Ditch (right) Haifley Ditch (left) Swartz-Carnahan Ditch Dunton Lake (right) Boger Ditch (left) Metcalf Ditch (right) Walker Ditch (left) Dilley Ditch (left) Wade Ditch (left) Bear Creek (right) North Branch Hursey Ditch (right) Carper Ditch (left) South Branch Hursey Ditch (right) Swander Ditch (right) Nancy Davis Ditch (left) Sol Shank Ditch (right) Weicht Ditch (left) Sebert Ditch (right) Varner Ditch (left) Hoodelmier Ditch (right) Melissa Ditch (left) Buck Creek (left) Smith Ditch (right) Mason Ditch (left) Metcalf Ditch (right) Harwood Ditch (left) Christoffel Ditch (right) Willow Run (right) Amaden Ditch (right) Greens Ditch (right) Foulks Ditch (left) Peter Grube Ditch (left) Big Run (right) Ayford Ditch (left) Walters Ditch (right) Streeter Ditch (right) Praul Ditch (right) Mary Metcalf Ditch (left) Teutsch Ditch (left) Donnell Ditch (right) King Ditch (right) John Smith Ditch (left) Haverstolk Ditch (left) Russell Run (left) Fish Creek (right) Cornell Ditch (left) Hiram Sweet Ditch (right) Baker Ditch (left) Hamilton Lake Black Creek (left) Haughey Ditch (left) Lillian Metz Ditch (right) Burch Ditch Ball Lake (left) Myers Ditch Perfect Lake (left) West Branch Fish Creek (left) Donald Nunkle Ditch (left) Bluff Run (left) Bear Creek (left) Tamarack Ditch (left) Eagle Creek (right) North Branch Eagle Creek (left) Nettle Creek Nettle Lake (right) Mill Stream Drain (right) East Branch St. Joseph River (rises in southwest Adams Township, Hillsdale County, Michigan at ) (left) Clear Fork (left) Silver Creek Merry Lake (left) Laird Creek (right) Nile Ditch (left) Ransom Ditch (left) Bird Creek Bird Lake (left) Newton Drain (left) Dillon Drain (left) Anderson Drain (left) Goose Creek (left) Lake Number One Lake Number Two Pittsford Millpond (right) Otto Drain Deer Lake Twin Lake (left) West Branch St. Joseph River (rises just south of the intersection of Carpenter Rd. and W. Territorial Rd. in southern Cambria Township, Hillsdale County, Michigan at ) Lake Seneca (left) outflow from Lake La Su An (right) East Fork West Branch St. Joseph River (rises in northwest Cambria Township, Hillsdale County, Michigan at ) (left) Jonas Brown Drain (left) Carruthers Drain (right) outflow from Cub Lake Cambria Millpond (left) Cambria Drain (left) Meade Drain Bear Lake (left) Pike Lake Broom Lake Lake Wilson Bankers Lake (left) West Fork West Branch St. Joseph River (rises from the outflow of Rebeck Lake in northwest Camden Township, Hillsdale County, Michigan at ) (left) Joe Drain (left) Prouty Drain Rebeck Lake Mead Lake Turner Lake
Drainage basin The St. Joseph River and tributaries drain all or portions of the following: Allen County, Indiana Cedar Creek Township Cedarville Eel River Township Fort Wayne Grabill Milan Township Perry Township St. Joseph Township Springfield Township Washington Township DeKalb County, Indiana Auburn Butler Township Butler Concord Township Franklin Township Garrett Jackson Township Keyser Township Newville Township Richland Township Grant Township Fairfield Township Saint Joe Smithfield Township Spencer Township Spencerville Stafford Township Troy Township Union Township Waterloo Wilmington Township Noble County, Indiana Avilla Allen Township Green Township LaOtto Swan Township Wayne Township Steuben County, Indiana Clear Lake Township Hamilton Otsego Township Richland Township York Township Defiance County, Ohio Milford Township
Williams County, Ohio Bridgewater Township Blakeslee Center Township Edgerton Edon Florence Township Madison Township Montpelier Northwest Township Pioneer St. Joseph Township Superior Township Hillsdale County, Michigan Adams Township Amboy Township Cambria Township Camden Township Camden Jefferson Township Osseo Pittsford Township Ransom Township Reading Township Wheatland Township Woodbridge Township Wright Township
See also List of Indiana rivers List of Michigan rivers List of rivers of Ohio USS St. Joseph's River, a World War II-era US Navy vessel named after this river.
References
Further reading Water Resource Availability in the Maumee River Basin, Indiana, Water Resource Assessment 96-5, Indianapolis:Indiana Department of Natural Resources, Division of Water, 1996, p. 46. Sunderman, Jack A., "The Three Faces of Cedar Creek," ACRES Quarterly, v. 39, no. 4 (Fall 2000), pp. 6-7.
External links
EPA St. Joseph Watershed Profile St. Joseph River Watershed Initiative Maumee River Basin Commission Maume Valley Heritage Corridor