Ask someone in Leo-Cedarville where to put a kayak in this weekend and you will probably hear "the reservoir." That word is doing more work than it should. This town sits within paddling distance of two separate bodies of water that both go by that name, plus a state-designated river that most people forget is an option at all. Show up expecting one and find the other, and your Saturday morning changes shape fast.
The confusion is understandable. Cedarville Reservoir sits right behind Steady Eddy's Station in the middle of town, a dammed stretch of the St. Joseph River that most locals just call "the river" or "the reservoir" depending on who's talking. Hurshtown Reservoir is a different animal entirely: a 240-acre lake built in 1969 as an emergency water supply for the city of Fort Wayne, out near Grabill, with its own admission booth and its own rulebook. Cedar Creek, the third piece, runs through Metea County Park and doesn't get "reservoir" in its name at all, which may be why it gets overlooked despite being the most scenic paddle of the three.
Here is why the difference matters more than it sounds like it should.
The reservoir behind the restaurant
Steady Eddy's Station occupies a building on State Road 1 that used to be a Sinclair gas station, then a license branch, then Cedar Creek Beverage, before Tim and Cara Hall converted it into a restaurant with a paddling counter attached. The Halls also run Fort Wayne Outfitters, the bike and boat rental operation with its main location downtown on the St. Marys River. Leo became a second site almost by accident. When construction in downtown Fort Wayne lowered river levels and hurt the rental business there, the Halls moved their fleet out to the public boat launch in Leo. Customers loved the Cedarville Reservoir experience enough that the Halls decided to make it permanent, and Steady Eddy's opened as its own identity rather than a downtown outpost, named for the eddy you see in flowing water.
Cara Hall lives on the river in Leo, close enough that she has described kayaking to work. That detail says something about the character of this stretch of water: slow, calm, and close-in. Paddlers who rent from the dock, about 300 yards from the restaurant, describe an easy loop with turtles, herons, and geese, the kind of water where a first-time paddler with two kids in a tandem kayak doesn't need to worry about current. Rentals run seven days a week from 10 a.m. to 8 p.m.
This is the reservoir most people picture when they say "let's go kayaking in Leo." It's the right picture for a relaxed afternoon. It is the wrong picture for the other reservoir.
The forested option nobody mentions first
Cedar Creek carries a state designation as a Recreational River, one of a small number of Indiana waterways protected under that program. The paddle most locals recommend starts where Cedar Creek meets Tonkel Road and runs to the DNR access site on State Road 1, cutting through Metea County Park along the way. That park covers 250 acres and contains the 120-acre Meno-aki State Nature Preserve, split into north and south sections by the creek itself.
What makes this route different from the reservoir behind Steady Eddy's isn't difficulty. It's mostly wooded banks and a quieter kind of wildlife encounter, since you're moving through protected preserve land rather than a dammed pool ringed by houses and a restaurant patio. If the Cedarville Reservoir loop is the paddle you take when you want company and a place to eat afterward, Cedar Creek is the one you take when you want to disappear into the trees for an hour. Both put-in points are a short drive from downtown Leo, and neither requires the planning that the third water does.
The reservoir with rules
Hurshtown Reservoir looks like it should be the same kind of casual paddle. It isn't, and the reasons are baked into what the lake is for.
Fort Wayne built Hurshtown in 1969 as insurance against drought, an emergency water source for the city rather than a recreation amenity that happened to allow fishing. That original purpose still shapes how the property runs today. Admission is cash only: $5 per car, or $1 per person if you walk in or arrive by bike. Boats are allowed, including your own, but the propulsion rules are specific. Electric trolling motors are the only motors permitted to actually move a boat through the water. Gas engines can be mounted, but only if they stay tilted up and out of the water the entire time. This isn't a place to bring a gas-powered fishing boat expecting to run it the way you would on open water.
The reservoir's current 2026 season runs daily from 7:30 a.m. to 8 p.m., May through October, according to the City of Fort Wayne's own facilities page. A 2.75-mile gravel path circles the water for walking, jogging, or biking, and depths inside the lake range from 5 to 29 feet based on IDNR mapping.
Fishing, not paddling, is the real draw here. The lake was stocked with roughly 39,000 smallmouth bass back in 1989, and DNR surveys since have found the population self-sustaining, along with walleye that wildlife officials confirmed are reproducing on their own inside the reservoir. Crappie and catfish move in through water pumped from the St. Joseph River. If your idea of a good Saturday involves a rod more than a paddle, Hurshtown is built for you in a way the other two waters aren't.
Three waters, one wrong assumption
| Water | Where | What it's actually for | The rule that trips people up |
|---|---|---|---|
| Cedarville Reservoir (St. Joseph River) | Behind Steady Eddy's Station, in town | Easy, social paddling with food and rentals on site | Calm and beginner-friendly, but it's a river pool, not a lake |
| Cedar Creek | Tonkel Road to the SR 1 DNR access site, through Metea County Park | A quiet, forested paddle through a protected nature preserve | No rental counter on site, so you need your own boat or a shuttle from Steady Eddy's |
| Hurshtown Reservoir | Near Grabill, a short drive from Leo-Cedarville | Fishing first, with boating built around that purpose | Cash only for admission, and gas motors can't be used to propel a boat |
The mistake isn't picking a bad option. All three are good options for what they're actually built for. The mistake is assuming the word "reservoir" means the same experience twice, or forgetting Cedar Creek is on the map at all because it doesn't carry that word in its name.
What this actually tells you about the town
None of this changes anyone's plans to buy or sell a house. It does say something about how Leo-Cedarville works as a place to live, which is worth more to a current resident than a listing ever will be. This is a town small enough that two named bodies of water and one protected creek sit within a short drive of each other, each doing something different, each run by a different set of hands or rules. The Halls built a paddling business here because they live here and the water convinced them to stay in it. The city runs Hurshtown like the utility asset it started as, with a cash box and a motor rule to match. Metea County Park protects a nature preserve that most people driving past on State Road 1 never notice.
That's the texture of a place that residents accumulate over a few summers, not something a portal listing or a drive-by can hand you. Next time someone mentions the reservoir, the right question isn't which one, it's which one for what you're actually trying to do this weekend.
If you're already living here and thinking about what comes next for your house, or you're watching this stretch of Allen County from a distance and wondering if it fits your next move, Lion Heart Realty Group knows this ground well enough to give you a straight answer either way. Schedule Your Free Strategy Call and let's talk about what you're actually looking for.
