Saddle River

Identifier
NJS-PLC-00091
Place Type
City, Town, or Village
Description
Saddler River is the name of a river that runs through Bergen County and flows into the Passaic River in northeastern New Jersey. Several places derive their names from the river. Today, there is a small borough called Saddle River in Bergen County, but this municipality was incorporated in 1894, and it did not yet exist during the slavery era. The modern-day small borough of Saddle River is not to be confused with the much larger historical township of Saddle River that formerly existed in Bergen County. Slavery-era documents that mentioned places in Saddle River were referring to the larger historical township, and most of those locations lie outside the present-day boundaries of the modern Saddle River borough.

The historical township of Saddle River was formed around 1716, and it originally included all of Bergen County west of the Saddle River. Additionally, most of the area of modern-day Passaic County was also originally part of this Saddle River Township (the part of the county west of the Passaic River). Over time, Saddle River Township broke up into many different municipalities, and a large portion of the historical Saddle River Township became Passaic County in 1837. By the turn of the 20th century, only the southernmost part of the historical township near the junction of Saddle River and Passaic River still remained intact; that section of Saddle River Township broke up to form the modern municipalities of Garfield, Elmwood Park, Fair Lawn, and Saddle Brook.
Locality
Saddle River
County (Modern)
Bergen County
State or Province
New Jersey
Country
United States of America
Latitude
40.895307
Longitude
-74.080643
References

John P. Snyder, The Story of New Jersey’s Civil Boundaries, 1606–1968 (Trenton, Bureau of Geology and Topography, 1969; New Jersey Geological Survey, 2004), https://www.state.nj.us/dep/njgs/enviroed/oldpubs/bulletin67.pdf. See p. 86.
Record Contributor
Jesse Bayker
Linked Places

Places formed from a portion of Saddle River or formerly associated with this place:
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Resource class
Location