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1987 — today
The Rivergreenway is one trail with three names, one for each river, and all three are measured from a single point: the confluence of the St. Joseph and St. Marys rivers downtown, at the water filtration plant, is the zero-mile marker for the St. Joseph, St. Marys and Maumee Pathways. The City of Fort Wayne today describes the Rivergreenway Trail as a 25-mile-long linear park in Fort Wayne and New Haven connecting fifteen city parks; the Eppley Institute's 2017 study measured it at 27 miles; Fort Wayne Parks' own pathway figures, summed below, come to just over 26. The three figures stand together in this entry because they are the record: the greenway's length depends on which spurs and levee segments the counter includes, and no single count has ever governed.
The pathways, as Fort Wayne Parks lists them: the St. Joseph Pathway, 5.7 miles on the west side of the St. Joseph River from the confluence to Shoaff Park, passing the Purdue Fort Wayne and Ivy Tech campuses and crossing on the Ron Venderly Family Pedestrian Bridge, and running past Johnny Appleseed Park and the ground of the Appleseed grave — the network has no separately named Johnny Appleseed trail, and the park's trail is this pathway. The St. Joe Boulevard Pathway, 1.14 miles on the east bank from State Boulevard to Lafayette Street, sits atop the levee system and was built as part of a flood control project — the greenway's flood-control parentage in a single segment. The St. Marys Pathway, 8.90 miles south from the confluence to Tillman Park, threads the Historic Old Fort, Promenade, Lawton, Headwaters, Bloomingdale, Swinney, Foster and Tillman parks and is the main trail connection to downtown. The Maumee Pathway, 8.75 miles east on the Maumee's north bank to New Haven's Moser Park, is the system's most remote reach, running behind the city's treatment ponds; in 2009 the City built a spur to Coliseum Boulevard for emergency access and entry. The Yarnell Trail, 1.11 miles, runs west from the St. Marys Pathway at Swinney Park along West Jefferson Boulevard to Rockhill Park, where the Towpath begins. In 2009 the Rivergreenway was designated a National Recreation Trail — the Journal Gazette reported the designation on 10 June 2009 — and it is owned and maintained jointly by the Fort Wayne Parks and Recreation Department, the City of Fort Wayne Public Works Department, and the New Haven/Adams Township Parks and Recreation Department.
Sources: City of Fort Wayne, Rivergreenway page (cityoffortwayne.in.gov/1278/Rivergreenway) — "a 25-mile-long linear park in Fort Wayne and New Haven"; fifteen city parks; ownership and maintenance by the three departments; National Recreation Trail recognition. Fort Wayne Parks pathway figures as carried in "Fort Wayne Rivergreenway," Wikipedia — zero-mile marker at the filtration plant; St. Joseph Pathway 5.7 mi; St. Joe Blvd. Pathway 1.14 mi atop the levee, "built as part of a flood control project"; St. Marys Pathway 8.90 mi and its park list; Maumee Pathway 8.75 mi to Moser Park and the 2009 Coliseum Boulevard spur; Yarnell Trail 1.11 mi; National Recreation Trail designation, 2009. Eppley Institute, 2017 Indiana Trails Study — the trail "is now 27 miles long." The Journal Gazette, "Rivergreenway earns national designation" (10 Jun 2009, via Wikipedia's citations). The Waynedale News and ActiveRain items (2005–2010) placing Johnny Appleseed's grave site on the greenway's route.