St. Joseph River

The St. Joseph River, known locally as the Saint Joe, is a 210-mile river. It flows generally west through southern Michigan and northern Indiana and empties into Lake Michigan at St. Joseph. It rises at Baw Beese Lake in Hillsdale County and passes Mendon. At Three Rivers it is joined by the Rocky, Portage and Prairie rivers. The river then dips into Indiana through Elkhart, Mishawaka and South Bend before turning north back into Michigan past Niles and Berrien Springs. Near its mouth it divides St. Joseph from Benton Harbor and receives the Paw Paw River. Its 4,685-square-mile basin is the third-largest watershed draining to Lake Michigan, and the main stem has 17 dams.

The Michigan DNR operates ramps at Buchanan, Benton Harbor, Jasper Dairy Road, Stump Bay and Mendon. Covered Bridge Park near Three Rivers has a county ramp, and Riverview Drive in St. Joseph is a carry-in site. The Jasper Dairy Road launch has a concrete ramp and a 42-space lot and requires a Michigan Recreation Passport. It lies about 9.7 miles below Berrien Springs Dam, where closing the dam gates lowers the flow. That reach has shallow riffles, boulders and logs. Berrien County rules set slow-no wake speed from the river mouth up to Radio Island and from the I&M dam at Buchanan down around Bachelor Island. Vessels are prohibited in a section just below the dam.

Fish ladders on the lower dams let salmon and trout pass as far as Twin Branch Dam in Mishawaka. Steelhead are the main target in the lower river, and Chinook and coho salmon run from September to mid-October. The St. Joseph is a designated Type 3 trout stream.