The Minisink or (more recently) Minisink Valley is a loosely defined geographic region of the Upper Delaware River valley in northwestern New Jersey (Sussex and Warren counties]]), northeastern Pennsylvania (Pike and Northampton counties]]) and New York (Orange and Sullivan counties]]). The name was derived by Dutch colonists from the Lenape name for the area, as they named bands of their people after geographic places which they inhabited as territory throughout the mid-Atlantic area.
The term "Minisink" is not used often today. It is preserved because of its historical relevance concerning the early European settlement of the region during the American colonial period ad for its role in early "first contact" between Native Americans and colonial settlers.
Originally inhabited by Munsee-speakers of the Lenape or Delaware Indians, this area was first settled in the late seventeenth and early eighteenth centuries by Dutch and French Huguenot families from colonial New York's Hudson River Valley.
Much of the historical Minisink region has been incorporated into the Delaware Water Gap National Recreation Area.