Darters found in fast-moving water includes sand darters (left) and gilt darters (right).

The Tippecanoe was never extensively channeled or dredged, although it was greatly altered by two dams built on the lower river in the 1920s.

The dams were for generating electric power and still serve that purpose. Norway Dam also formed Lake Shafer and Oakdale Dam formed Lake Freeman, large reservoirs near Monticello.

The Potawatomi named the river Ki-tap-i-kon-nong, "place of the buffalo fish," a fish still found there.

Tippecanoe entered the nation's lexicon in 1811 with the defeat of Indians loyal to Tecumseh and commanded by his brother, The Prophet, in the Battle of the Tippecanoe near the river's confluence with the Wabash. The battle brought fame to William Henry Harrison, who became President by campaigning on the slogan, "Tippecanoe and Tyler too."

Nine treaties, leading to the disappearance of most Potawatomi from Indiana, were made at the village of Chip-pe-wa-nung, north of Rochester near where Old U.S. 31 crosses the river. An encampment of nearly 900 Indians at the same location was forcibly removed from Indiana on the "Trail of Death" in 1838.

No large towns or cities have developed along the Tippecanoe. Forested areas, which include two state parks, form a riparian corridor, which acts as a filter along the river banks.

Absemt from Hoosier waterways since the early 1900s, a successful program to re-establish river otters in Indiana included a release at Tippecanoe River State Park in January 1996.

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