History
The Mohonk Preserve was founded in 1963 as the Mohonk Trust by guests of the Mohonk Mountain House and the Smiley family, who are the founders and present owners of the Mohonk Mountain House. This resort and its Victorian hotel was named a National Historic Landmark in 1986. A reciprocal agreement allows Preserve members and day visitors to visit the resort grounds.
There is no research to support the commercial branding that "Mohonk" in the native Lenape language means, "lake in the sky", or that the name historically applied to the lake. According to Marc B. Fried's Shawangunk Place Names, an early variant of the name, "Moggonck," applied on boundary records to the "high hill," the crag now named Skytop where the Smiley Tower is located. "The spelling in 1677 was "Moggonck" in both Dutch deed and English patent....although the spelling change from gg to h was probably done for the sake of euphony, with commercial considerations in mind, it has the effect of helping preserve the guttural sound of the letter g in Dutch, the original language in which the name was transliterated from the Indian tongue." Citing Lenape scholar Dr. David Oestreicher, Fried writes about its meaning: "Animal place names among the Lenape were common. Moggonck appears to be derived from maxkwung, 'place of bears,' or perhaps shortened from Munsee maxkawenge, 'hill of bears.'"
With respect to the change in spelling and the name of the lake, Fried writes: "A change in spelling from "Moggonck" to "Mohonk" is first seen in a New Paltz Times article of July 6, 1860, where it is reported that "A Mountain-House is being built at the north end of Lake Mohonk, at Paltz Point." This is also the first instance found of the name - any name - being applied to the lake."
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