Tonight’s National Public Radio nightly news program All Things Considered will include a piece on the polluted and decaying body of water known as the Passaic River.
Montclair resident and Passaic River anthologist Wheeler Antabanez served as “urban sherpa” for the show’s producers, Art Silverman and Shereen Meraji, who explored the waterway that runs through greater Baristaville for five days in the late summer. Silverman and Meraji found Antabanez through his web site “Wheeler on the Passaic,” and his book, Nightshade on the Passaic, published by Weird N.J.
The on-air radio documentary — as well as online video footage and interactive maps which will be posted on ATC’s web site — will include interviews and history collected along the riverbank stretching from Mendham to Newark. Stops along the way included places like Diamond Shamrock, Newark Bay and The Colt Mill in Paterson. The journalists interviewed more than 100 people, each with a different river story to tell.
Tune in tonight to hear the story in real-time, or go to the site for a full portrayal of our own polluted but uniquely beautiful river. Locally, ATC is aired on WNYC, weekdays at 4PM and 7PM on 93.9 FM and AM 820.
WNYC-FM 93.9 New York Mon – Fri, 04:00PM-06:30PM
WNYC-AM 820 New York Mon – Fri, 07:00PM-08:00PM
Listening now. Very exciting!
I love the Passaic.
Great story. But a sad part of our past.
Funny though, if you were to eat a fish from the Passaic- the other Jersey Shore, you’d turn as orange as Snookie.
Maybe someday someone will find John Holland’s early submarine prototype that sank in the Passaic somewhere near Paterson.