For four years, college students Mike Dalessio and David Howard have been souvenir hunting in the woods behind the Sheraton Mahwah, searching for any remnants they could find of the massive Ford Motor Co. assembly plant that, from 1955 to 1980, occupied the overgrown site nestled between Route 17 and the Ramapo River.

Apparently, they were looking in the wrong place.
In December, the duo, both Mahwah natives, finally "struck gold," according to local historian and author Tom O'Brien, a trustee of the Mahwah Museum, when they stumbled upon the plant's dedication plaque. It was a find deemed to be of such local significance that O'Brien said it will go on display later this month as part of the museum's permanent collection.

That the young men found the plaque at all was a "miracle," according to Dalessio. But where they found it -- on the Internet sales site Craigslist -- is something they're both still laughing and shaking their heads about.

"I was on the site about a week or so before Christmas," Dalessio recalled, "just looking for bargains ... you know ... stuff people were selling in town."

A 21-year-old student at the Culinary Institute of America, Dalessio said he frequently goes onto the site in search of "random stuff. Old car parts. Signs. Whatever. I've just always had this affinity for antique-type things, stuff from another era. I did a search for 'Mahwah' and, just like that, I saw a listing that said 'Rare antique Ford sign, bronze, Mahwah Ford assembly plant, 1955.'

"I said, 'no way ... this can't be,' " Dalessio said. "But, I clicked on the link and there it was. I immediately sent the link to Dave. I was like, 'Is this possible?' "

The seller, Rick Nerger, an estate liquidator in Rockaway Township, was asking $650 for the plaque, which he told Dalessio and Howard had been in the garage of a "pack rat" who died last year and left behind all sorts of unlikely treasures.

"He had a few statues, antiques, a few odd things," Nerger said, "but no other Ford memorabilia, so I have no idea whether he worked at the plant or not."

Howard, 22, a student at Lincoln Tech, whose grandfather worked at the Edgewater Ford plant in the 1940s and '50s, said he and Dalessio pooled their limited resources, hit up their parents and friends for donations, and told the seller they were definitely interested.

Howard then drove to meet Nerger in, appropriately, his blue 1999 Ford Mustang. "Once I had [the plaque] in my hands," Howard said, "it felt kind of awesome. We were a little reluctant about buying it, because it was a lot of money for us, but when we finally had it and were able to see it, we realized how important it was."

He and Dalessio knew right away that they wanted to donate it to the museum and contacted O'Brien who, in addition to being a member of its board of trustees, authored the sole book on the facility: "The Ford Motor Company Assembly Plant, Mahwah, N.J. 1955-1980."

While O'Brien has little doubt of the plaque's authenticity, he still isn't sure, after sifting through dozens of photos in the museum's archives, whether the plaque hung inside or outside the plant.

"The plaque is about 2 feet wide, almost a foot and a half high and quite heavy," O'Brien noted. "The condition suggests to me that it was outside the building, but I'm still not sure. It's not in the outdoor photos we have during the 1955 dedication ceremony, but often these types of plaques are added later."

The plaque shows obvious signs of deterioration, O'Brien added, "which would suggest it was kept outside. But the plant closed over 30 years ago, and I can't be sure if that [deterioration] was from where the previous owner kept it."

Nostalgia from heyday

Although best remembered by many residents because of the toxic sludge it left behind in nearby Ringwood, the plant still generates strong feelings of nostalgia for those who recall its heyday.

At the time it opened, it was the largest auto assembly plant in the country, covering an area the size of seven football fields. And it turned out memorable vehicles such as the finned Thunderbirds of the late 1950s -- which Americans instantly fell in love with -- as well as the country's first seven Edsels, which became one of the great automotive flops of all time.

As the plant was about to close in 1980, a victim of a sluggish economy and changing tastes, presidential hopeful Ted Kennedy used the plant as a campaign stop, giving a speech there about the "failed and flawed economic policies" of the Carter administration. The plant was later mentioned in the haunting Bruce Springsteen ballad "Johnny 99," recorded by Springsteen, Johnny Cash and others.

O'Brien said that as the plant lives on in local legend, it seems to exert some special pull over younger residents like Dalessio and Howard. "I'm not sure why the plant is so fascinating to young people," he said, although he surmises that the plant's almost complete disappearance -- the deconstruction began in 1980 and all remnants of it were removed by Ford -- makes the site a local curiosity.

In addition to the plaque, many photographs remain, and O'Brien says residents continue to send him pictures as they find them, which he hopes will eventually solve the mystery of where the plaque was originally located.

"We get new photos of the plant all the time, though, so we're going to continue looking."

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