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The system's first miles were built by the two cities, a generation apart in method. South Bend's commitment to dedicated walking and bicycle trails along the St. Joseph River began in the 1970s, on the city's own account in its 4 March 2009 Riverside Trail release. The first segment to open was the northern portion of the East Bank Trail, in 1988 — one of the first rail-trails in Indiana, on the Rails-to-Trails Conservancy's TrailLink record — an asphalt path of about half a mile along the river's east bank toward St. Joseph High School and the Holy Cross and Notre Dame edges. Mishawaka's first miles came as a city riverwalk rather than a trail program: the City of Mishawaka built its Riverwalk in phases around its downtown parks — Battell Park (dedicated 1881, the city's oldest) among them — under the official name the National Register record carries, the River St. Joseph of the Miamis Trail, and extended it east in its latest phase, Race Street to Cedar Street with Marvin's Garden, built June 2022 to October 2023 for about four million dollars. On this ground there were no first miles to build: the county parks record for Ferrettie/Baugo Creek County Park — brochure, trail map and master plan, the audit's named settler — designates its two trails (Palisades, Portage) as hiking trails, and no county document reached names any trail in Penn Township as built for, or open to, wheeled use. The first-miles article for Osceola is therefore the boundary record above, and the town's own first mile remains unbuilt.
Sources: City of South Bend news release, 4 March 2009 (1970s commitment; Riverside phases); TrailLink / Rails-to-Trails Conservancy, East Bank Trail record (northern portion opened 1988, among Indiana's first rail-trails), read November 2026 as named cross-check; National Register / Clio record for Battell Park Historic District (the Riverwalk's official name; Battell Park dedicated 1881); Larson-Danielson Construction, Mishawaka Riverwalk extension completion report, October 2023 (Race-to-Cedar extension; Marvin's Garden; $4 million; June 2022 start); St. Joseph County Parks, Ferrettie/Baugo Creek brochure, trail map and Five Year Master Plan 2019–2023 (hiking designations only). Rights basis: published municipal and conservancy facts; no image pulled.