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The Buffalo Run is one of the state system's four DNR-cooperative trails, and it is St. Joseph County's only one. Its keeper is the Michiana Trail Riders Coalition Inc. (MTRC), a South Bend-based club of snowmobile enthusiasts, holding the trail under cooperative agreement with the DNR, which funds it: the program manual's FY2026–FY2027 budget gives Buffalo Run the largest of the club contracts — 30,395 dollars per year, on lease payments of 22,250 dollars, a 1,500-dollar pre-construction payment, construction and maintenance at 65 dollars a mile, and a 10 percent lease contingency. Its route, on the DNR's trail map (updated 8 January 2026): a generally north–south course through the county's west side — from State Line Road at the Michigan line, past Elbel Park golf course and the Darden Road country west of South Bend, across US 20 and the Indiana Toll Road corridor, through New Carlisle (the map prints the American Legion Post 297 address, 486 E Michigan Street, New Carlisle, among its stops), past Bendix Woods County Park, across State Road 2, and south to a Crumstown end — the map's named southern stop is JJ's Crumstown Tavern, 59400 Crumstown Highway, North Liberty — with its trailhead in the county-road grid west of there. Its published mileages print unreconciled, as instructed: the current carriers agree at 68 miles — the DNR trail map ("The 68-mile Buffalo Run Snowmobile Trail") and the program manual's budget table (Buffalo Run 68; system total 195) — while the conflicting figures the audit register expected (63 and 70 miles) were not found in any carrier this section reached, and are printed as not found rather than reconstructed; older secondary carriers reached also print 68. The trail is ridden under the standard state rules printed on its map: open 1 December to 31 March only when posted open, all sleds registered, wheeled vehicles prohibited, and the route itself a chain of leased easements across private property — "DO NOT LEAVE THE MARKED TRAIL." Closure: DUG — name, club, route, funding, and mileage state are all on the record, at county frame.
Sources: Indiana DNR, Buffalo Run Snowmobile Trail map (updated 8 Jan 2026; 68 miles; MTRC; regulations as printed) and Snowmobile Trails Program Manual 2025–2027 (FY2026–27 budget table: Buffalo Run 68 mi, $30,395/yr; $65/mile; lease terms); Treadworld, Indiana snowmobile trails (Buffalo Run, 68 miles, MTRC, South Bend — secondary carrier).