South Bend

South Bend is a city in northern Indiana, United States, on the St. Joseph River at the southernmost bend of its course. The University of Notre Dame, on the northern edge of the city, gives the area its national fame through its football team and the golden dome of its main building.

The Potawatomi lived along the river, and the portage between the St. Joseph and the Kankakee was the shortest overland route from the Great Lakes to the Mississippi. René-Robert Cavelier, Sieur de La Salle, crossed it in 1679, the first European to reach the site. Alexis Coquillard opened a trading post for the American Fur Company in the 1820s and became one of the founders of the town. Henry Studebaker and his brothers opened a wagon shop in the 1850s, and Studebaker grew into the largest wagon maker of the time and later built automobiles in the city until 1963.

The Oliver Chilled Plow Works, founded by James Oliver, made steel plows that farmers used across the Midwest, and the Singer sewing machine company ran a cabinet factory in the city. Their brick factory halls along the river were later turned into offices, lofts and a technology park.

The Studebaker National Museum shows wagons, carriages and cars built in the city, among them a carriage used by Abraham Lincoln. The East Race Waterway, a former mill race downtown, was the first artificial whitewater course in North America. Potawatomi Zoo, opened in the early 20th century, is the oldest zoo in Indiana. The basilica of the Sacred Heart at Notre Dame has painted walls and French stained glass.