A short distance north of its junction with Saddle river there is a shallow place used as a ford in Colonial times, which was probably a crossing used by the Indians on their way to the homes of the Acquac anonck along the Passaic valley, and thence through the Short hills to the west. Those who sought the region inhabited by the warlike Minsi, who were settled in the Preakness valley and Pompton plain, probably took a path around the bend of the Passaic river, or cut across country from New Bridge on the Hackensack past Maywood, over Saddle river near Areola, and passing around the Passaic at Hawthorne found themselves on the line of the Pomp- INDIAN PATHS ton road, at the entrance of the pass through the Watchung mountains.

From Pompton an old roadway, possibly the successor of a trail, followed the course of the Ramapo river along the base of the southern Ramapo mountains, by which route the traveler would have reached Suffern most conveniently.