River Country Water Trail, Michigan

Glide down the streams of St. Joseph County in southwestern Michigan past the site of a Native American village that stretched for miles and catch a glimpse of how things used to be. See a trading post from the early 1800s that was replaced by a Georgian-style manor, a blacksmith shop from the 1870s that is currently a museum, and evidence of an 1850s era sawmill, including the remnant of its dam and millrace, that once sent lumber to Chicago and Milwaukee.
 
Thus begins the description of the St. Joseph River Heritage Trail, the first Water Heritage Trail in the U. S.  St. Joseph County Michigan is known as River Country because it has more navigable rivers and streams than any county in the state.  The entire Heritage Water Trail takes you from Colon, “Magic Capital of the World,” to Mendon, originally an Indian Village and trading center, to Three Rivers which has retained its historical look, with much of the downtown area on the National Historical Register, complete with its turn-of-the-century buildings and the Silliman House on the St. Joseph River.

A great day can be had paddling along the St Joseph River, Nottawa Creek, and Portage River discovering historic sites, picnic areas and cultural and natural points of interest along the way. The River Country Heritage Water Trail is made up of three different river trails – two along the St. Joseph River and one along the Nottawa Creek. As the St. Joseph winds its way west of Mendon towards Three Rivers, the ending point of the first phase of the trail, it passes under the Langley Covered Bridge (SJ-12), built in 1867. The 282-foot bridge, named after a local pioneer family, is the longest covered bridge in the state as well as one of the few that remain.