St. Joseph River (Maumee River tributary)
tributary of the Maumee River in Ohio and Indiana
The St. Joseph River (Miami-Illinois: Kociihsasiipi) is an 86.1-mile-long (138.6 km) tributary of the Maumee River in northwestern Ohio and northeastern Indiana in the United States, with headwater tributaries rising in southern Michigan. It drains a primarily rural farming region in the watershed of Lake Erie.
The St. Joseph River of Lake Michigan is an entirely separate river that rises in western Michigan, dips into Indiana, and flows west into Lake Michigan.
Origin
At the end of the Wisconsin glaciation, the glacier's Erie Lobe retreated toward the northeast, leaving large debris deposits called moraines. The St. Joseph formed as a meltwater channel between the north limbs of two of these moraines, the Wabash Moraine on the west and the Fort Wayne Moraine on the east. At that time it joined the St. Marys River to drain into the Wabash River.
“St. Joseph River (Maumee River tributary)” enters the record as tributary of the Maumee River in Ohio and Indiana. Crown Archives preserves that source wording while asking what Joseph, River and Maumee can confirm, complicate or overturn.
Why this record matters
“St. Joseph River (Maumee River tributary)” is worth following because a concise public description often conceals a longer documentary argument. Here, Joseph, River and Maumee provides the most credible route into that argument.
Maps, plans, fabric surveys and administrative records can establish how the site’s name, extent and function changed over time. The source revision retrieved here is dated Aug 6, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q1138574. The Library of Congress control number is sh2007005548. Authority coordinates are 41.083, -85.132. 2 of 3 selected statements include explicit references; 2 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank.
Modern boundaries and familiar names can conceal earlier jurisdictions or structures that do not align with the present site. The lead is largely declarative, so disagreement and counter-evidence require a deliberate search beyond the opening account. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.
How to read it
Treat names, boundaries and functions as historically changeable. Maps, plans, inventories and administrative records can clarify what the place meant at different dates.
- Historic place names
- Jurisdictional context
- Routes into maps and plans
Contemporary maps, plans, listed-building records, estate papers and the responsible local or national archive.
Three-step research path
- Establish the record: confirm the title “St. Joseph River (Maumee River tributary)”, its source revision and the description used here.
- Expand the search: follow St. Joseph River (Maumee River tributary) primary sources, St. Joseph River (Maumee River tributary) archive and Joseph research across catalogues and specialist indexes.
- Test the account: compare the strongest cited source with the responsible institution’s current record and note any disagreement.
Questions for further research
- Which source most directly establishes the central claim about “St. Joseph River (Maumee River tributary)”?
- Which earlier names or jurisdictions may reveal additional records?
- What physical evidence or contemporary plan supports the description?
Search terms from this dossier
This entry incorporates text from “St. Joseph River (Maumee River tributary)” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.