City parks right in your own backyard often have interesting history and natural connections often to water.

We're going to talk a little bit about the importance of rivers and the role that they can play in City Recreation.

And we are with Jamison.

So Nike and you are the superintendent of this Elkhart City Parks Department.

So thanks for being here today.

This is a lovely, quiet, shady spot.

Yes.

And tell us where we are so right now, we're currently in between Lundquist Bicentennial Park and the beginning of Highland Park on the old wooden bridge.

And so basically, once we cross this, we will be on an island.

And that's how Island Park got its name.

But how long has it been a park?

Yeah.

So it's been a Parsons.

1887, the Beardsley is, who helped found Elkhart where the ones who donated the property and and it's taken a variety of different amenities to the time.

But it's been a park that long and it's it's been a joy for everybody Great recreation site for people bicycling, walking, playground, whatever.

But I'm especially interested in the fact that it's obviously being an island surrounded by rivers.

So how about if we walk over the bridge, get over onto the island, and then I want to talk about the rivers that are here.

Sure.

Okay.

Let's go We've been hiking the path here on Island Park, and as we're headed towards the River Edge, this shelter is gorgeous.

Tell me about the history.

So this is the old picnic shelter.

It was built in the originally the 1930s by the Works Progress Administration.

Through the Roosevelt administration.

And so they redesigned and you can still see that their original brickwork today, their stonework.

And so they did that and they didn't artesian well that they turned into a drinking van at the same time.

And so this was yeah this was originally in the center of the property and then in the 1930s 1940s they got brought over to here and rebuilt and so it was kind of expanded upon as the picnic shelter and so that's when they did that and it has been a wonderful addition to this park and loved by many people.

Yeah, it is really special.

So let's keep walking because the river's right here behind us and it's on the other side of the island here.

So let's loop around because I want to see where two rivers come together and there's a special name for that.

So we're going to check that out.

Let's go this this the artesian well and you were talking about.

Yeah, yeah.

This is that's amazing.

So it just runs continuously, huh?

Yeah.

So artesian wells are formed underground.

It's it's a well, that's between two groundwater surfaces.

It's used by pressure.

And so it's different from a hand well, a hand dug well.

Yeah.

And so this will allows the pressure to come up and spin through.

And so it's been operating ever since it was an artesian spring way back when, almost a hundred years ago.

And when the WPA built the pavilion and turned into this at the same time, they decided to just make it a drinking fountain provide endless water for people.

And it's still used today, and many people enjoy it.

That's great.

You know, I love seeing all the old stuff like this that's still preserved.

Is that people can still use, which is great.

And of course, right behind us is the same Steel River.

So let's go and take a look because this is a really pretty stretch.

Sure.

Yeah.

I can see, you know, there's nice ripples here.

Mm hmm.

And I'm looking over here, Jamison.

So that bridge beyond that takes you off the island.

The next fully connects to another park, doesn't it?

Yeah, it's called Hyde Park.

And so that bridge was sponsored a lot by Miles Laboratories back in the day.

And so when that was funded, it created that opportunity for people to go from one course bar to island to high dove.

And then you can continue on and head up to to Walker Parks.

There's a nice, really nice string, a nice string of green space.

Now, the river here, this behind us with all the riffles is the St Joseph.

Yes, right.

And so the St Joseph River splits around Ireland Park.

Yeah.

Where does the St Joseph River start?

St Joe River starts in Hillsdale, Michigan, actually, and runs through about 210 miles, but stops through here in Elkhart, the South Bend.

And it's fun because the St Joseph River actually spends quite a bit of time in Michigan.

Right.

And then kind of dips down here into Indiana and then goes back up into Michigan.

Right.

So, so it spend some time here creating essentially Highland Park.

I have heard that this island at one time is what gave Elkhart its name.

Is that true?

Yeah.

And so in the mid 1800s, when the Beardsley family purchased the land from the Pottawattamie native tribe, they they were told that this island was in the shape of the heart of an elk.

And I think back then it looked more like the heart of an elk.

But whatever that looks like, I don't know.

Right.

Since that time, erosion and everything has made it more of a the oval shape that we see today.

But they took that name from here and kept it for the whole city.

And now we're the city with the heart.

Nice, right?

I mean, I think it's really cool.

That a park actually is the reason our city got its name.

Right, right to the heart of downtown, right?

Is.

Yeah, it's just all.

Well, weird place.

Yeah, it is.

And of course, you know, I just got to mention right here behind us, beautiful sycamore.

Sycamore is down here the second in Cottonwood, which are typically found along rivers.

Yes.

Yeah, yeah.

Great, beautiful, beautiful trees here.

All right.

So we're going to make our way around because two rivers come together down here, right?

All right, let's go look one of the things I love about this little spot, which is right in the middle of the city, is it's great for birds.

Like there's tons of swallows here.

Beautiful osprey fishing here in the St Joseph River.

There's Mallard Ducks course there's Canada geese, but it's actually a pretty birdy.

Little park for for its size.

Right.

Which is wonderful.

But there are many other things that people can do here.

For instance, tell me about this Kayak launch over here on that.

So these were recently installed this year.

And so there's two that we're put in and we have one here, Beardsley Park.

And then it goes you can go west and just put it into the Saint Joe here and continue down.

And right across from McNutt, there's a park called Edgewater Park and you can get out there.

And so it's our the first county is kind of ADA accessible kayak route and so we're hoping to program that.

It's a great detail, but we've already seen a lot of people utilizing it from all backgrounds and ages and great a lot of people will put in on the Elkhart and come down and get out here or they'll put in here and head down west.

So you just mentioned people will put in at the Elkhart right show right here is basically where the rivers come together, right?

Yes.

And that where rivers come together like that.

What's that called?

It's called a confluence.

A confluence.

So this is kind of a historic natural site because two rivers coming together, the Elkhart River coming in here and the St Joseph River coming in here.

So the water is essentially mix and onward they go out to Lake Michigan, right?

Yep.

Which is really cool.

So this is the spot essentially where the Elkhart is coming in, right?

Yeah.

And that's interesting because I if I may, this is what's been so interesting about Elkhart as a city and why parks like these are so interesting because they've got so much rich cultural history.

There's also a lot of natural history but cultural with why Elkhart was developed, where it was and how it's been successful as a manufacturing city and how that's really shaped today, which is a good thing to remember for so many years.

Cities turned their back against the river, right?

They put all their factories in their mills and then people couldn't access the river.

And of course, we dumped lots of bad stuff in the river, out of sight, out of mind.

Right.

But obviously, the tide has turned.

I guess that's a saltwater metaphor.

Maybe we shouldn't use that.

This is fresh water but now cities are really doing great jobs, just like this park of opening up the river access to people.

Right.

Why is that important?

Oh, so many reasons.

And I love where we're at today because you look at the history of the Elk River in the St Joe River and around 1950 before the Clean Water Act, you know, they were doing testing and they found two fish species there in the river at that time just too.

And today we have an aquatic biologist who does amazing work and they've been doing this amazing work for three decades almost now.

And we know that the rivers are getting cleaner and cleaner, and that's been because of the Clean Water Act and many other things that are still happening today.

We're removing CSOs.

And so we've changed the dynamic of the river and people are just now starting to realize that the rivers are not these nasty corridors of waste.

They're beautiful wildlife refuges that people can enjoy and interact with.

And that's why we're doing more work with the waterways now and, and getting people to understand that they're not the same rivers they used to be.

And that's huge for for people's mental health and their recreation they're healthier and it becomes a more livable, healthy community for people.

And that's exactly right.

So as you know, people who think about cities and making them viable and livable and walkable shore rivers can play a really important part, especially when you have a beautiful spot like Island Park.

It's a great space.

Yes, absolutely.

Thanks so much for sharing this beautiful spot.

I hope people will come and visit the Elkhart Parks because there are little gems, I think.

Right, right.

In town remember, you can find your own outdoor elements when you visit area parks in natural areas.

Thanks so much.