St. Joseph

History

The mouth of the Saint Joseph River at present day Saint Joseph was an important point of Miami and Potawatomi travel and commerce, as it lay along a key water route between the Great Lakes and the Mississippi River. Both the Miami and Potawatomi used this route and would use the area as a camp. The St. Joseph River also allowed for connection with the Sauk Trail, which was the major land trail through Michigan. In 1669, the mouth of the river was seen by European explorers. French explorer René-Robert Cavelier, Sieur de La Salle, built Fort Miami on the bluff overlooking Lake Michigan. In 1678, he waited for the ship Le Griffon, which never returned. Once the ship was deemed lost, La Salle and his men made the first land crossing of the lower peninsula by Europeans. The next permanent white settler in Saint Joseph was William Burnett, who around 1780 started a trading post at the mouth of the Saint Joseph River. The post traded food, furs and goods with places including Detroit, Mackinac and Chicago. In 1829, Calvin Britain, who had come from Jefferson County, New York, and had taught at the Carey Mission at Niles for two years, came to the site of Saint Joseph. Shortly thereafter, he laid out the plat of the village, then known as Newburyport, named after a coastal city in Massachusetts. Britain was influential in attracting other settlers to the area. Lots sold rapidly and the village flourished. The Saint Joseph river mouth was straightened through a channel and piers were added later. The first lighthouse in Saint Joseph contends with Chicago's original lighthouse as the first to be built on Lake Michigan. Newburyport changed its name to St. Joseph when it was incorporated on March 7, 1834. The first water route across Lake Michigan between Saint Joseph and…

Geography

According to the United States Census Bureau, the city has a total area of , of which is land and is water.

Race & ethnicity

Most-observed species

• Northern Cardinal

  Cardinalis cardinalis (Linnaeus, 1758) · Aves
  7,187
• American Robin

  Turdus migratorius Linnaeus, 1766 · Aves
  6,861
• American Crow

  Corvus brachyrhynchos C.L.Brehm, 1822 · Aves
  6,553
• Blue Jay

  Cyanocitta cristata (Linnaeus, 1758) · Aves
  5,662
• Mourning Dove

  Zenaida macroura (Linnaeus, 1758) · Aves
  5,435
• Red-winged Blackbird

  Agelaius phoeniceus (Linnaeus, 1766) · Aves
  5,268
• Canada Goose (canadensis Group)

  Branta canadensis (Linnaeus, 1758) · Aves
  5,104
• Ring-billed Gull

  Larus delawarensis Ord, 1815 · Aves
  4,880

Most recent

• M 2.9 — 2026-07-08
  21 km ENE of Kenilworth, Illinois
• M 4.2 — 2015-05-02
  5 km S of Galesburg, Michigan