The LaSalle Trail

The county's trail, Roseland to the Michigan line

The county's segment: North of the city, the trail belongs to the county. The LaSalle Trail is St. Joseph County Parks' segment of the river-valley corridor: an arrow-straight paved trail running from Roseland Town Park north, parallel to SR 933, to the Indiana–Michigan state line, where it connects to the Niles Township trail system and the Michigan side of the River Valley Trail. The county's own master plan for 2014–2018 describes the trail mid-build — "The LaSalle Trail starts in Roseland near the Roseland Town Park running parallel with S.R. 933, and will eventually reach the Indiana/Michigan state line. The first phase now ends at Cleveland Road. Construction on the half-mile section from Cleveland Road to Darden Road is scheduled to begin in 2015–2016" — and fixes the completed figure: "The trail will cover 3.5 miles of paved trail when completed." The county's current trail text states the completed fact in the present tense: the trail now runs from Roseland Town Park to the state line, 3.5 miles. The corridor it occupies is a railroad's: the trail's published history identifies it as a rail trail on the former interurban corridor between Niles and South Bend, worked in its day by the Indiana Railway Company and the Southern Michigan Railway Company — the interurban record itself is told in this history's Trains account. The Department of Natural Resources counts the LaSalle Trail among its designated Visionary Trails. At its south end the trail meets the Darden Road ground where the Riverside Trail arrives over the Darden Bridge; at its north end it hands the rider to Michigan. Its first construction year does not appear in the county publications read for this section, and is named as a gap rather than borrowed.

Sources:

1. St. Joseph County Parks, Five Year Master Plan 2014–2018, p. B-23 (the trail's course, first phase, 2015–2016 section, and the 3.5-mile completed figure).
2. St. Joseph County Parks, LaSalle Trail page (the present-tense run from Roseland Town Park to the state line and the connection to the Niles Township system).
3. Wikipedia, "LaSalle Trail," citing St. Joseph County Parks (the rail-trail corridor and its interurban operators; the DNR Visionary Trail designation — attributed, the county's own publications read for this section do not carry the trail's first construction year).