In 1820, Pierre Frieschutz Navarre arrived, representing the American Fur Company (AFC) of John Jacob Astor.

[16] In 1827, Lathrop Minor Taylor established a post for Samuel Hanna and Company, in whose records the name St. Joseph's, Indiana was used.

[17] That same year, Horatio Chapin moved to the settlement, opened the first general store with imported (out of state) goods and helped established the first church and Sunday school.

[18] In 1856, attorney Andrew Anderson, Chapin's son-in-law, founded May Oberfell Lorber, the oldest continuous business in St. Joseph County.

Colfax purchased the South Bend Free Press and then turned it into a pro-Whig newspaper, the St. Joseph Valley Register.

[22] During this time period there was a great immigration of Europeans, such as Polish, Hungarian, Irish, German, Italian, and Swedish people to South Bend because of available employment in area factories.

[14] Another significant development occurred near South Bend in 1842, when Father Edward Sorin founded the University of Notre Dame just north of the town.

Notre Dame students, well aware of the anti-Catholic nature of the Klan, vigorously protested this intrusion, and before noon all of the Klansmen traffic directors had been "unmasked and unrobed."

Notre Dame students continued the fight, with several hundred gathering outside of the Klan headquarters, throwing rocks and smashing windows in protest.

[39][40] In 1949, legendary percussionist Lionel Hampton was informed that his concert at South Bend's Palais du Royale would be a blacks-only event; he threatened to call for a boycott of the venue, and the affair proceeded as an integrated evening, which newspapers said led to all attendees breaking out in "paroxysms of ecstasy".

[42] This decline of industry and population loss led to the Rust Belt designation for the northwestern and midwestern regions of the United States that experienced these effects of deindustrialization.

The city extends further north on the west side, mainly with manufacturing and distribution facilities near the South Bend International Airport.

Lake Michigan exerts a great influence on the climate of South Bend, including lake-effect snow in winter and a tendency to moderate temperatures year round.

[70] He chose South Bend primarily because it was on a rail line midway between Chicago and Detroit, the two automotive manufacturing centers of the United States at the time.

Since the 1960s, education, health care, and small business have come to the forefront of South Bend's economy, though the city has never regained the level of prosperity it enjoyed before that time.

According to the 2017 Comprehensive Annual Financial Report,[73] the city's top employers are: Efforts are under way to spur economic growth in South Bend.

The St. Joe Valley Metronet is a 50-mile (80 km) dark fiber optic network that encircles South Bend and Mishawaka that allows for strong telecommunications connectivity.

This telecommunications network has allowed for the advent of various data centers in South Bend, which serves as a hub between Chicago, Indianapolis, Detroit, and Cincinnati.

[79] Ignition Park, located just south of the downtown area, is planned to become home to 3 million square feet (280,000 m2) of high-tech space on 140 acres (570,000 m2) of land previously owned by the Studebaker Corporation.

The other part of the initiative is the West Side Main Streets Plan, a revitalization plan for the Lincoln Way West and Western Avenue corridor focusing on guiding business owners, residents, and developers to improve the street front by offering a reimbursement on exterior improvements from the city and the Urban Enterprise Association.

[100] The museum began as a collection of wagons and automobiles produced by Studebaker, including the presidential carriages of Lincoln, McKinley, Harrison, and Grant.

The Indiana University South Bend Civil Rights Heritage Center is housed in the former Engman Public Natatorium.

[104] The group has performed at various South Bend venues including the State Theater, Legends of Notre Dame, The Potawatomi Conservatories, and the historic Birdsell Mansion.

The East Race Waterway is one of only six such facilities to have ever been operated in the US, the others being the four aforementioned courses and the now-defunct Ocoee Whitewater Center (in Ducktown, Tennessee).

[116] During World War II, the South Bend Blue Sox All-American Girls Professional Baseball League team was formed in the city.

On March 26, 2012, South Bend passed the Human Rights Ordinance, outlawing discrimination in employment, housing, or other areas against citizens based on "race, religion, color, sex, disability, national origin, ancestry, sexual orientation or gender identity, or familial status.

Transpo operates bus routes between stations located in South Bend and Mishawaka and provides services to the towns of Osceola and Roseland, from Monday through Saturday.

The airport connects South Bend to larger hubs including Atlanta, Charlotte, Chicago, Dallas, Las Vegas, Minneapolis, Orlando, Phoenix, Punta Gorda, Sarasota, and St. Petersburg, Florida.

A once-daily limited-stop express service was added in 2015 on weekdays, with trains taking 1 hour and 55 minutes from South Bend to Chicago.

[154] In 2021, a group proposed the concept of building a new streetcar system, running from the University of Notre Dame, through South Bend, to Mishawaka.