Prehistoric Fishing Weir

The Fair Lawn/Paterson fish weir spans the Passaic River approximately 180 meters (200 yards) north of the Fair Lawn Avenue bridge, straddling the Borough of Fair Lawn (in Bergen County) and the City of Paterson (in Passaic County), in New Jersey. It consists of a "V"-shaped wall of river cobbles and boulders, with its point oriented downstream. The structure spans the entire width of the Passaic River, which at that point is approximately 80 meters (260 feet) wide. Fish weirs (traps), many built by native Americans prior to European settlement, once abounded on the Passaic River and elsewhere in the northeast U.S.