Marshall County, Indiana

Marshall County is a county in Indiana, United States, on the northern lakes plain about 27 miles south of South Bend. It had a population of 46,095 at the 2020 census, an estimated 46,464 by 2024, and covers 449.74 square miles (1,164.8 km2) centred near 41°20′N 86°16′W.

Plymouth is the county seat and the county’s only city; its postal code is 46563. The county holds 1 city, 5 incorporated towns and 16 smaller communities across 10 townships, and it runs on Eastern Time. Its FIPS code is 18099.

Towns & Villages in Marshall County

Twenty-two named places sit inside the county line. Only six are incorporated — the city of Plymouth and the towns of Argos, Bourbon, Bremen, Culver and La Paz. The rest are census-designated places or unincorporated communities: real places with names, road signs and mail delivery, but no town council of their own. Populations below are 2020 census counts; a dash means the place has no separate census count. In the Type column, CDP means census-designated place — a settlement the Census Bureau counts separately — and Unincorp. means an unincorporated community.

Two pairs on that list confuse visitors, so worth spelling out. La Paz is the incorporated town on US 6; La Paz Junction is the separate rail-junction settlement beside it. Old Tip Town is the original 1850 townsite; when the railroad came through, the settlement moved about a mile to the site now called Tippecanoe, and both names survive on the map. Koontz Lake straddles the county line — most of the census-designated place lies in Starke County, with its eastern end, including part of the lake, in Marshall County’s West Township.

Townships

Marshall County is divided into 10 civil townships. Center Township, which contains Plymouth, holds a third of the county’s people; Green Township, in the far south, holds just over a thousand.

ZIP Codes

Nine post offices serve Marshall County addresses. A tenth ZIP, 46574, is based at Walkerton in St. Joseph County but covers the county’s northwestern corner.

• 46501 — Argos (also serves Walnut)
• 46504 — Bourbon
• 46506 — Bremen
• 46511 — Culver (also serves Burr Oak, Maxinkuckee and Rutland)
• 46513 — Donaldson
• 46537 — La Paz, written “Lapaz” in USPS records
• 46563 — Plymouth (also serves Inwood and Twin Lakes)
• 46570 — Tippecanoe and Old Tip Town
• 46572 — Tyner
• 46574 — Walkerton, covering Teegarden and the Koontz Lake area

Harris, Linkville, Summit Chapel and La Paz Junction have no ZIP code of their own. Their post offices closed decades ago — Linkville’s in 1903, Rutland’s in 1918 — and mail now arrives by rural route from the nearest town.

Geography

The county sits on flat to gently rolling glacial terrain in Indiana’s northern lake district. Of its 449.74 square miles, 443.63 are land and 6.11 are water — about 1.4 percent, high for an Indiana county, because of its lakes. Lake Maxinkuckee at Culver covers 1,864 acres and reaches 88 feet deep, making it the second-largest natural lake in Indiana. The Yellow River runs west through Plymouth toward the Kankakee basin.

Six counties border Marshall County: St. Joseph to the north, Elkhart to the northeast, Kosciusko to the east, Fulton to the south, Pulaski to the southwest and Starke to the west.

Demographics

The 2020 census counted 46,095 residents, and the Census Bureau’s 2024 estimate puts the county at 46,464 — growth of under 1 percent in four years. Plymouth, with 10,214 people, is the largest community; Bremen, at 4,696, is second. Median household income is $68,041 (American Community Survey 2023 five-year estimate), a little below the Indiana figure of $70,051. Population density works out to roughly 104 people per square mile of land.

Economy & Local Life

Manufacturing is the county’s largest employer by a wide margin, with about 6,450 residents working in it, ahead of health care and social assistance (2,665) and retail (2,177). Bremen carries much of the industrial base — Southwire, Bremen Castings, Nishikawa Cooper and Universal Bearings all operate there — while Plymouth is home to Aker Plastics, Zentis North America and the St. Joseph Health System hospital.

Culver Academies, a private boarding school, occupies the northwest shore of Lake Maxinkuckee and is the county’s best-known institution. The Marshall County Blueberry Festival, held over Labor Day weekend at Centennial Park in Plymouth, is the biggest event on the local calendar and one of the largest four-day festivals in Indiana.

History

The Indiana General Assembly authorised Marshall County on 7 February 1835, naming it for John Marshall, the Chief Justice of the United States who died that year. County government was organised in 1836, and Plymouth, platted as the county seat the same year, became a city in 1851.

The county’s hardest history is the Potawatomi Trail of Death. In 1838, roughly 859 Potawatomi were forced from their village at Twin Lakes, near present-day Plymouth, after Chief Menominee refused to sign a removal treaty. The march to Kansas ran from 4 September to 4 November 1838, about 660 miles in 61 days; 42 people died on the way, 28 of them children. It was the largest single removal of Native people from Indiana, and markers along the route commemorate it.

Railroads reshaped the map later in the century. The Nickel Plate Road reached the area in 1882, and its route is why Tippecanoe moved off its original site and why Inwood was renamed from Pearsonville.

Getting There

No interstate crosses Marshall County. US 30 runs east–west just north of Plymouth, US 31 runs north–south as a freeway toward South Bend, US 6 crosses the northern townships through La Paz, and State Road 17 links Culver and Plymouth.

• South Bend — 27 miles north
• Fort Wayne — 67 miles east
• Chicago, Illinois — 94 miles northwest
• Indianapolis — 125 miles south

The nearest commercial airport is South Bend International (SBN), about 25 miles north of Plymouth. There is no Amtrak station in the county; the nearest is South Bend, on the Chicago–East Coast route.

Frequently Asked Questions

Where is Marshall County located?
Marshall County is in northern Indiana, United States, between South Bend and Logansport, about 27 miles south of South Bend.

What is the population of Marshall County?
46,095 at the 2020 census, estimated at 46,464 in 2024.

How big is Marshall County?
449.74 square miles in total (1,164.8 km2) — 443.63 square miles of land and 6.11 square miles of water.

What is the county seat of Marshall County?
Plymouth, population 10,214, which is also the county’s only city.

How many towns are in Marshall County?
Six incorporated places: the city of Plymouth and the towns of Argos, Bourbon, Bremen, Culver and La Paz. A further 16 named communities and census-designated places are listed above.

What ZIP codes cover Marshall County?
46501, 46504, 46506, 46511, 46513, 46537, 46563, 46570, 46572 and 46574.

What is the biggest lake in Marshall County?
Lake Maxinkuckee at Culver, 1,864 acres and 88 feet at its deepest — the second-largest natural lake in Indiana.

More counties in this state: Towns and villages in Indiana.