The Riverwalk

2003 — 2023 AND AFTER

The walk that ties the system together was conceived on a demolition site and built in stages over twenty years: After the Uniroyal ground was cleared, the city took up, in De Kever's words, "an ambitious multi-year project": a continuous riverside walk to connect Central Park and the Cedar Street Bridge with Battell Park, the Logan Street Bridge, Kate's Garden, Lincoln Park, Kamm Island and Beutter Park. Built in stages and "stitched together," in the city history's phrase, into one route of ten-foot-wide sidewalks with lighting and benches, its course runs: a first stage from Logan Street along Wilson Boulevard through Battell Park, and a second through Central Park; the south-bank walk from Beutter Park to Lincoln Park, with its three Kamm Island footbridges, largely completed by 2003; Beutter Park itself opened in 2004; in 2008 the Central Park–Battell Park link was completed and an "iconic cable-stay bridge" erected between Beutter Park and Battell Park — visitor accounts call the same span the "Mishawaka Suspension bridge," and the form conflict is printed as it stands, cable-stay on the city history's word against suspension in visitor usage; in 2009 the final phase of the west Riverwalk connected Lincoln Park and Kate's Garden; in 2015 the walk was extended the entire length of Central Park, past the Hospice campus, "all the way to Cedar Street"; and in October 2023 the east-side extension was completed, closing the walk's east end with Marvin's Garden Park, a garden bookend balancing Kate's at the west.

Marvin's Garden "celebrates the life of Marvin 'Marv' Wood, who moved to Mishawaka in 1969," on the dedication account of the walk's contractor, Larson-Danielson. Whether this is the Marvin Wood of Milan's 1954 champions and Bethel College's bench is plausible and unproven on the sources reached, and the identification is not printed. The walk's length is a printed conflict of the harmless kind: De Kever gives a "three-mile, continuous walking route"; the national trail inventory gives the loop 2.6 miles, Logan Street to Cedar Street; the visitor bureau's 2021 account gives a "5-mile Riverwalk loop," apparently counting both banks and spurs; route applications measure between. All stand. The walk's official name is the River St. Joseph of the Miamis Trail. Its trailheads double as the present riverfront's inventory: Central Park (295 East Mishawaka Avenue), Battell Park (301 West Mishawaka Avenue), Beutter Riverfront Park (120 Ironworks Avenue), the trailhead at 86 Schellinger Square, and Kate's Garden beside Lincoln Park (1004 Lincolnway West) — a factory river's banks, end to end, in public hands, in one walk.

Sources:

1. Peter J. De Kever, Mishawaka: A History — the walk's conception, stages and stitching; the three-mile route; the 2008 link and cable-stay bridge; the 2009 west completion; the 2015 Central Park extension.
2. Larson-Danielson Construction (October 2023) — the east-side extension's completion; Marvin's Garden's dedication and its Marvin Wood account.
3. TrailLink trail inventory and Visit South Bend Mishawaka (March 2021) — the 2.6-mile and 5-mile loop figures; the trail's official name; the trailhead list.