page_title: Rahway River
section_title: Historic uses of the Rahway River
hierarchical_section_title: Rahway River / Historic uses of the Rahway River
caption_attribution_description: English: Sara Savage Muller and her husband, Ernest W. Mueller, were naturalists who created articles on various outside recreation in the early 20th century. Her father was Joseph Webber Savage, mayor of Rahway.
context_page_description: The Rahway River is a river in Essex, Middlesex and Union Counties, New Jersey in the United States. The Rahway, along with the Elizabeth River, Piles Creek, Passaic River, Morses Creek, the Fresh Kills river mouths at the Arthur Kill.
  Part of the extended area of New York-New Jersey Harbor Estuary, draining part of the suburban and urbanized area of New Jersey west of Staten Island, New York, the river is approximately 24 miles long. The upper reaches are lined with several parks while the mouth serves as an industrial access channel on the Chemical Coast.
  The river was once on the lands of the Lenape Native Americans, and tradition states that the name is after Rahwack, a local tribal chief.
  The river is the source of drinking water for the City of Rahway. Each spring, the river is stocked with approximately 6,000 trout.
  The river is also the source of the name for the Rahway Valley Railroad which has a bridge over it on the Springfield/Union border.
context_section_description: Beginning in the 1880s, the Cranford River Improvement Association and other Cranford organizations held various water carnivals and regattas on the river.  According to an 1886 New York Times article, the carnival's decorations illuminated the night: "nearly a hundred boats will be gaily decorated with sky lanterns, the river banks will be illuminated with colored lights, the bridges will be lit up, there will be bands of music and a display of fireworks."   Novelist Robert Ferro described these carnivals in his 1983 novel The Family of Max Desir, centered on a fictionalized version of the river.
  The Rahway was once host to a variety of sawmills and gristmills.  Droeschers Mill is the last remaining mill on the Rahway.
  The Paper Mill Playhouse is an acclaimed theater in the area for live theatrical performances.  In March 1795, Sam Campbell built The Thistle Paper Mill on land along the Rahway River in the town of Millville, later renamed Millburn. Campbell ran his business for about 20 years until he was forced to close down due to a fire. The building remained vacant for several years and ownership changed several times. In the late 1870s, Diamond Mill Paper Company took over the property and used it for their paper making business until 1928.
  The Rahway River was also the site of freshwater pearl-fishing as a form of recreation as depicted in photographs from the early 1910s.
caption: Freshwater pearl-fishing on the Rahway River
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