By Frederick Karst
Photography by Richard Fields
A canoe rests on the banks of the Tippecanoe River in Fulton County on a rainy autumn afternoon.
Randy Overmyer fell in love with the Tippecanoe River 12 years ago. Now he runs a canoe livery at Leiters Ford.
"The river is so peaceful," he says. "There aren't many power boats, because it's too shallow and rocky, and it's never crowded."
For centuries, it has been an ideal habitat for species that thrive in clear water. Native Americans found it a convenient artery of travel and a good place to live and hunt.
The Nature Conservancy considers the Tippecanoe the eighth most important river in the nation as a haven for rare and endangered fish and mussels.
It still has 49 of the 57 species of mussels it once had, said Chad Watts, project manager of The Nature Conservancy's Tippecanoe River Project, in Winamac.
The Tippecanoe holds the largest and most significant population of clubshell mussels in the world, making it a "national and even global resource," Watts added.
The Tippecanoe watershed begins with ditches, streams and smaller lakes in Whitley and Noble counties above Lake Tippecanoe. Fishing is good throughout the river as it continues from that lake to its confluence with the Wabash.
The outstanding diversity of mussels in the river has attracted the attention of conservationists nationwide.
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