In September 2021, a north Jersey resident contacted me through the website offering to sell a pre-War Passaic River cast iron marker. I’d been wanting one of these signs for a long time, but had never seen one at a reasonable price. New Jersey posted these classy-looking signs at waterway crossings along state highways and also at state park entrances. Of all the rivers and creeks in New Jersey, the Passaic River is the one that I wanted most.

When I received the sign, it was very rusty, most of the paint was gone, and the base had been cut or broken off leaving a rough chunk of iron that would need to be removed. I lugged it up to Ed Tapanes‘s place, and I helped as he did the bulk of the work to cut off the excess iron from the base, flap-disk it smooth, and drill and tap two mounting holes. This fellow knows how to “get it done”! I did a decent amount of wire brushing, scraping and application of Naval Jelly, but as you can see, I proceeded to paint it while the surface was still rather rough. I love the result!