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The rivers' racing record
No roostertails on the three rivers: Fort Wayne's rivers are narrow, dammed at the downtown confluence, and unsuited to powerboat racing, and no sanctioned powerboat or hydroplane racing on them appears in the record — the city's name belongs to no regatta. The racing the rivers do document is human-powered: the Three Rivers Festival's raft race, an event of the festival record, and the canoe and kayak races run on the St. Joseph River, whose course the paddling guides place at Shoaf Park and the university ramp. They are entered here so the absence is a finding rather than a gap: Fort Wayne raced on dirt, on pavement, on cement, and downhill on gravity — but not, in the documented record, under power on its own water.
Sources:
- Flatwater paddling guides for the St. Joseph and St. Marys rivers (water.schutt.org) — Shoaf Park as the home of the Fort Wayne canoe and kayak races; the Three Rivers Festival canoe events on the St. Marys and St. Joseph.
- Three Rivers Festival event record — the festival raft race on the river (the festival's own program record).