Three Rivers, where three rivers meet

Three Rivers is named for exactly what it sounds like: the spot where the Rocky and Portage rivers flow into the winding St. Joseph River. That junction made it a crossroads long before the town existed — Native people camped at the meeting of the water routes for centuries, and the French explorer La Salle passed through in 1680. When settlers arrived in the 1830s, Three Rivers was as far up the St. Joseph as big boats could travel, so goods were loaded onto flatboats here and floated down toward Lake Michigan.

The rivers still shape the town. There’s an island park, Memory Isle, right where the waters meet, and a historic Victorian-era downtown on the National Register. Three Rivers is also home to a genuine rarity: St. Gregory’s Abbey, a working Benedictine monastery of the Episcopal Church that has welcomed visitors and retreatants since 1946.