The state's markers: twenty-three in the county

1963 — 2021

The program and the count: The Indiana Historical Bureau, a division of the Indiana State Library, has placed official state historical markers across Indiana for more than a century. Its published list for St. Joseph County — the Bureau's county tally stands at twenty-three markers, the county's run spanning 1963 to 2021 — is enumerated here from the Bureau's own list, at the strength the list gives: twelve stand in South Bend or at its northern edge, nine in Mishawaka, and two in the county's townships. The nine Mishawaka markers and the two township markers are named at roster size inside the county count and no further; their texts are Mishawaka's and the townships' records, in later builds.

The city's twelve: The county's first state marker is South Bend's: Camp Rose, placed in 1963 at Leland and Portage Avenues, for the Civil War camp on the fairgrounds. Then the Sisters of the Holy Cross, Civil War Nurses, 1861–1865 (1965), at Madison Street and Notre Dame Avenue; the Indiana Territorial Line (1966), where U.S. 31 meets Johnson Road on the city's southern edge; and the Site of Home of Schuyler Colfax (1966), at Colfax and Taylor Streets. One marker in the Bureau's list carries no year: La Salle's Camp 1 Mile West, standing at the junction of the Dixie Highway (State Road 933) and Darden Road at the city's northern edge — the list prints its placement year as unknown, and this record prints it the same way. The modern run resumes after a long quiet: the Jewish Cemetery Site (2002), on Niles Avenue; Lincoln & Dixie Highways (2010); Kenneth Rexroth (2017), at 828 Park Avenue; and Better Homes of South Bend (2017), at Elmer and Keller Streets — installed, the Bureau's marker page records, by the Indiana Historical Bureau, the City of South Bend and the Far Northwest Neighborhood Association together, for the Black housing development whose fight against restrictive covenants the Black History account tells. The newest three mark institutions and teams: Indiana University South Bend (2020), J. Chester and Elizabeth Allen (2020) — the civil-rights lawyers, at 115 South Lafayette Boulevard — and the South Bend Blue Sox (2021), at the university's River Crossing housing on Ironwood Drive, for the women's professional baseball team whose home ground stood near that ground. No marker later than 2021 for this county appears in the Bureau's published list as reached for this account; the next county marker is an update-cycle item by definition.

Across the line and in the townships, at roster size: Mishawaka's nine: First Dam Across the St. Joseph River/Power Race (1968), First Bridge (1968), The Mishawaka Academic and Normal Institute (1968), St. Joseph Iron Works (1968), Mishawaka High School (1976), Kamm & Schellinger Brewery (1995), Normain Heights Subdivision (1997), Battell Park (1997) and Dodge Manufacturing Company (1999). The townships' two: Huggart Settlement (1998), for the antebellum Black settlement in Union Township, and Porter (Rea) Cemetery (2003), in Potato Creek State Park near North Liberty. Twelve, nine and two: twenty-three, as the Bureau counts them.

Sources:

1. Indiana Historical Bureau, Indiana Historical Markers by County (in.gov) — the Bureau's St. Joseph County list and tally of 23, and the statewide county table (St. Joseph County: 23 markers, span 1963–2021, as of the Bureau's March 2024 compilation).
2. Indiana Historical Bureau marker pages — Better Homes of South Bend (ID 71.2017.2): location at Elmer and Keller Streets, installed 2017 by the Bureau, the City of South Bend and the Far Northwest Neighborhood Association; Sisters of the Holy Cross, Civil War Nurses (ID 71.1965.1); Jewish Cemetery Site (ID 71.2002.1); First Bridge (ID 71.1968.2); Normain Heights Subdivision (ID 71.1997.1); Battell Park (ID 71.1997.2).
3. The Bureau's list as compiled in the List of Indiana state historical markers in St. Joseph County — titles, years and locations of all twenty-three, checked against the Bureau's category and county pages; La Salle's Camp carried with its year unknown, as the list gives it.