South Bend City Map Poster

About South Bend

The St. Joseph Valley was a major center of the 19th century Indiana-Michigan canal mania, with numerous canals being built to connect South Bend and Niles, Michigan. The city is located near the historic Wabash-Erie Canal and close to several other defunct canals such as the Miami and Erie Canal (which ran from Toledo through Fort Wayne) or planned ones like the Chicago Sanitary & Ship Canal that would have connected Lake Michigan with the Mississippi River via Illinois's Des Plaines river valley; today, this waterway is known as The Calumet Sag Channel in Chicago. South Bend has an extensive park system which includes White Pine Park (the second largest municipally owned park in Indiana), Lincoln Park Performing Arts Center at Penn High School, Riverside Golf Course (18 holes), two public golf courses: Forest Dunes Golf Club on Portage Avenue between Eddy Street/Mishawaka Avenue/Pike Street downtown area; University Links on Notre Dame Ave./Edinburgh Rd.