The Tippecanoe River is a gentle, 182mi river in northern Indiana that flows from Big Lake in Noble County to the Wabash River near Battle Ground, about northeast of Lafayette. The name "Tippecanoe" comes from a Miami-Illinois word for buffalo fish, reconstructed as */kiteepihkwana/ or as kiteepihkwana siipiiwi.The Tippecanoe River is fed by 88 natural lakes and has a drainage area of 1250000acres, spanning 14 counties. Very few streams in the upper Midwest can match the number of imperiled species or the overall species diversity that the Tippecanoe River supports. The Nature Conservancy named it one of the top ten rivers in the United States to preserve due to the ecological diversity and the high proportion of endangered species found in it.CourseThe Tippecanoe River originates from multiple kettle lakes formed by glaciers in Noble County, Indiana. The river flows west into Wilmot Pond which is formed by a small dam on its western side. After Wilmot, it crosses into Kosciusko County and enters Backwaters Lake which is basin of Webster Lake. After going over the dam at Webster Lake the river travels a few miles and enters Tippecanoe Lake. From there the river flows south and west through the southeast corner of Marshall County, then bends northwest through the northern part of Fulton County and through Pulaski County, from the northeast corner to the south central portion, traversing Tippecanoe River State Park along the way. It then enters White County, where dams form Lake Freeman and Lake Shafer. The river exits Lake Freeman from the south and flows through the west part of Carroll County into Tippecanoe County, where it joins the Wabash River.
