The Anaconda standard. [volume] (Anaconda, Mont.) 1889-1970, 1899-07-23
THEIR FIRE is NOT QuENcHED.
New Jerseys Peat Boys Are in Perpetual
State of Combustion.


Stretching south from Hackensack
and bordered by the New Jersey and
New York railroad on the west at the
foot of the ridge extending north from
Rutherford is an extensive expanse of
bog meadow known as THE Risers."
Why thus designated or why ;he word
is apparently in the plural has never
been satisfactorily explained. In
newspaper printed in Hackensack G ut
40 years ago the editor made this VEN
ture: .''
Its origin cannot be definitely traced,
but the name has existed for a large
number of years, and was applied be-
yond the memory of our oldest inhabi-
tant. In some of our old records the
word is written Rysa.' 1t is said the
name is derived from the Dutch or
Holland language, and was originally
applied to the tall and rising bushes
peculiar to that soil, under the name of
rysas, hence we now have Ryser or
Riser. This derivation is by no means
certain or satisfactory to US. Some
have guessed it was an Indian name,
but a guess that it was Chinese might
be as we'll authenticated"
The public road running along the
ridge is still known as Polifly road and
Polifiy is given in Dutch as bog mead
ow," hence road of the bog meadow.
For several years modern iconoclasts
called the road Terrace avenue, but
last month, al the request of Edward E.
Poor, president of the National Park
bank, who has fine home and estate
bordering the bog land, the Hacken-
sack authorities, by formal resolution,
restored the ancient name of "Poht1y
road" The road is very old. WASH
ingtOn marched over it on his retreat
from Fort Lee, and it is still bordered
by several old stone farmhouseS.
name, the Risers was, or We're, at the
period above quoted covered with
heavy growth of wood and bushes. 1t
was then and for a few years later
famous place for hunters, aboundlnS IN
small game. A number of oldest IN
habitants" tell remarkable tales of
trapping rabbits and foxes and of snar-
ing large birds in the Risers when they
were boys. The place was also Won
derful huckleberry patch, and was rich
in poisonous snakes.
Along in the sos a large part of the
tract was purchased by the late Judge
| Huyler, who saw money in the stand
| ing timber and began to convert 1t into
| cash With the removal of the trees
| and bushes came a movement to re-
| claim the meadow by drainage, when
| was to be done by a commission created
| by the legislature. This project failed,
| but the meadows began to dry up, and
an fnterpTlSlnS foreigner uI0tONSlC Gu
| that there was a good article of peat in
| the bog and he utilized it for fuel.
! Ii was about this time, some 30 or
more years ago, that fires were started
| in the boys, and every summer since the
| Riser fires" have become an annoyance
| to residents for several miles along lhe
| valley. During the periods of extreme
| drouth the fires burn tierCely, the flames
| leaning many feet into the air, dense
| clouds of smoke rise heavenward or
| hang heavily over the landscape. ON
| several occasions the south wind has
carried the smoke into HaCkensack in
such dense clouds that it resembled
heavy fog and caused great annoyance
to everybody. The peculiar odor of the
smoke is such that the native residents
promptly detect it and explain to visit
ors or newcomers THAI it is only the
RiserS atire.
The fires now come so regularly with
a dry spell" of unusual duration, but
not entitled to the term drOuth, that
many persons believe that they are
never Quenched, smOldering many feet
beneath the surface and breaking out
as soon as there is a lull in the opera
lions of natures spTinkling cart.
In the early days of the recent drouth
smoke began to ascend from the very
heart of the Risers, nearly mile from
any habitation, and in places where
men never venture. During all the
weeks of high temperature and dry
atmosphere the Risers blazed and
smoked and it required more than an
ordinary shower to temporarily subdue
the flames to that condition where the
smoke ceased to rise like the vapor from
Hot Springs. Even at the present time
the Riser smell' is conspicuous a long
way.
on the south the Risers are bounded