Built Where Two Rivers Meet
Railroads, not rivers, built modern Elkhart. The town was laid out in 1832 near the confluence of the St. Joseph and Elkhart rivers, but it was the arrival of railway repair shops around 1870, which made Elkhart a New York Central Railroad division point, that really drove the town's growth.
Water Table Near the River Confluence
Elkhart sits at the confluence of the St. Joseph and Elkhart rivers, and the same railway-era growth that made the town a New York Central division point around 1870 also built out neighborhoods close to that river junction -- basements in those older, river-adjacent blocks generally deal with a higher water table than homes built farther out in later RV-boom-era subdivisions.