Three pathways from the zero marker

2009 - present

The shape: The Rivergreenway is a linear park laid over the city's founding geography. It originates at the confluence of the three rivers, beside the water filtration plant in downtown Fort Wayne, and that point is the zero-mile marker for all three of its pathways, which run out from it like spokes: north up the St. Joseph, south up the St. Marys, and east down the Maumee the two shorter rivers form. The City of Fort Wayne, on its Rivergreenway page as read in November 2026, counts the Rivergreenway Trail at 25 miles of linear park in Fort Wayne and New Haven, running along the banks of the Saint Joseph, Saint Marys and Maumee and connecting 15 city parks; the encyclopedia entry for the same trail counts 26 miles. The mile between the two counts is printed, not settled.

The St. Joseph Pathway: The northern spoke follows the west side of the St. Joseph River from the confluence to Shoaff Park, 5.7 miles in the current counting. It was built in reaches. American Trails in 2018 still measured it at three miles, delivering users into Johnny Appleseed Park; the first phase of the extension from Johnny Appleseed toward the university campus was completed in the summer of 2010, including a new trail across the Coliseum Boulevard bridge and under it to the campus, and in November 2011 the city was advertising for construction engineering on the next phase toward Shoaff Park, a 0.45-mile, ten-foot-wide section with pedestrian bridges over the Sumner Drain and over the Schoppman Drain and its lagoon, boardwalk included. A pathway, in Fort Wayne practice, is a thing built drain by drain.

The east bank: Across the river runs the St. Joe Boulevard Pathway, 1.14 miles along the east side from State Boulevard to Lafayette Street. It sits atop the levee system and was built as part of a flood control project, which makes it the clearest small example of this section's largest theme: in Fort Wayne the trail and the flood work are the same structure, read two ways.

The St. Marys and the Maumee: The St. Marys Pathway runs south from the confluence 8.90 miles to Tillman Park, on the city's south side, alternating banks as it goes. The Maumee Pathway runs east 8.75 miles along the north side of the Maumee to the City of New Haven's Moser Park, the most remote reach of the three, passing behind the city's treatment ponds; in 2009 the city built a spur from it to Coliseum Boulevard for emergency access and another entry point. The Rivergreenway 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 and Adams Township Parks and Recreation Department, and in 2009 the Rivergreenway was designated a National Recreation Trail. The full entry-by-entry pass over the three pathways stands in BIKE TRAILS; this article is their shape and their dates.

Sources:

1. City of Fort Wayne, Rivergreenway page, as read November 2026 (the 25 miles, the 15 parks, the joint ownership).
2. Wikipedia, Fort Wayne Rivergreenway, as read 2026 (the zero-mile marker; the pathway lengths 5.7, 1.14, 8.90 and 8.75; the 26-mile total; the 2009 National Recreation Trail designation and the 2009 Coliseum spur).
3. American Trails, Rivergreenway profile (2018) (the St. Joseph at three miles to Johnny Appleseed Park).
4. City of Fort Wayne request for proposals, 15 November 2011, via the Indiana Department of Transportation (the Johnny Appleseed to Shoaff Park Phase I-B section, its bridges and boardwalk).