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An artist adopts the river
09/20/00
BY ANA M. ALAYA
STAFF WRITER
In a patch of primrose and touch-me-nots along the Hackensack River is a waist-high tablet emblazoned with two images.
One is a turn-of-the-century postcard view of a sparkling river bounded by white cedars, lush greenery and bucolic homes. The other is a black-and-white photograph, circa 1950, of refineries and smokestacks.
The tablet, titled "Progress," could refer to any of a number of New Jersey rivers representing the transformation from ecological splendor to industrial squalor this century. But this tablet, along with 15 others, was especially meant for the banks of the Hackensack, once considered one of the 20 most-polluted rivers in the United States.
''Every river has its stories," said Richard Mills, a 53-year-old artist in Teaneck who created the unusual series of "signworks" that he designed and installed along the Hackensack.
''These signs tell a story; they are a way to help connect people to a sense of place," said Mills, who hopes his creations will serve as a model for other river communities. "If I can get people to fall in love with the river, then we can have some hope that people will want to see the river restored."
Mills, a member of the Hackensack River Greenway Task Force, took a nine-month sabbatical from his teaching job at the C.W. Post campus of Long Island University this year to research the environmental and cultural history of a 3.5-mile section of the Hackensack, from the Bogota-Teaneck border to New Bridge Landing in River Edge.
Using maps, photographs, poems, children's drawings, satellite images, postcards and interviews with local historians, Mills designed the series of tablets and installed them along a path by the river's edge. People walking from one to the next are treated to a self-guided historical tour, from the eras when Native American villages dotted the banks, through the time when raw sewage and pollutants wiped out much of its life, to the restoration efforts of today.
Teaneck Mayor Paul Ostrow said, "Sometimes beauty is in our own back yards, under our own noses, and we take it for granted. And this brings it to our attention."
Some of the signs bring to life local characters from along the river, such as the grizzle-whiskered "Lone Fisherman," Jake Terhune, who pulled white perch, catfish and an occasional sturgeon from the river in the early 1900s, as described in one account.
At Brett Park in the New Bridge Landing area, another sign tells the story of the old Hackensack Indian Village, the early Colonial settlement that followed, and the Revolutionary battle for control of the bridge, considered a pivotal moment in America's struggle for independence.
''My thought was, let's get some of this history out of the musty attics," said Mills, a former taxi driver and landscape painter. "You can't have books on the greenway, but you can get people interested."
As a young boy, Mills saw the impact of pollution firsthand, on the south shore of Long Island. A theme emerging in many of his Hackensack River signs is the impact of human decisions on the river's vitality. For example, the signwork called "Progress," which is strategically located in view of Tilcon New Jersey Inc. in Bogota, one of the remaining factories on the riverbank, includes a 1916 testimonial from a Bergen County freeholder who sees a "gold mine" in the river. "The only way it can be developed is to build factories on its banks," the quotation reads.
The signworks run the gamut from the informative to the poetic, a design technique intended to reach many levels of interest and to "set a mood," Mills said.
The first tablet in the series, at Terhune Park in Teaneck, depicts a black-and-white etching of the Garden of Eden. "This first one introduces and frames the project by showing Paradise," Mills explained, "because we're also dealing with myths -- the myth here being that we can rape and plunder our natural resources any time because this is such a big country. The idea is one of a fall from grace."
Another sign at Terhune Park shows an 1896 balloonist's aerial view of Kipp's Bend alongside a photo of the 1745 Jacob Terhune homestead where the powerful Bergen County family once lived. A page from the tax assessor's book shows Terhune paid $179 in taxes in 1895 and 50 cents tax on his dog.
Names such as "Sunrise," "Farmer," "Fancy," "Ophelia" and "Magic," which once graced schooners that plied their trade on the Hackensack during the 19th century, cover the "Windjammers of the Hackensack" tablet.
While much of the artwork traces the past, "none of this is about nostalgia," Mills said. "We're never going to have paradise again. It's about telling a story and thinking about the future."
Mills highlights efforts since the Clean Water Act was passed in 1972 to clean up the river. A sign is dedicated to the birds of the river, including great egrets and ruddy ducks. A photo of a bald eagle recently spotted near the river in New Milford is included.
Funding for the project was provided by the New Jersey Historical Commission, the state Department of Commerce and Economic Development, Public Service Electric & Gas Co., the Puffin Foundation, the Teaneck Rotary Club, Long Island University, and Friends of the Hackensack River Greenway. Mills said he received about $3,500 in grants and in-kind contributions worth $5,000.
Mills, who conducts public walking tours of the Hackensack River Greenway, has received an award for the signs from the Waterfront Center, a Washington, D.C., environmental group.
© 2000 The Star-Ledger. Used with permission.
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