Lake Mohonk

Lake Mohonk

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Lake Mohonk
Lake Mohonk
Location	Ulster County, New York
Coordinates	41°45′58″N 074°09′25″W / 41.76611°N 74.15694°W / 41.76611; -74.15694Coordinates: 41°45′58″N 074°09′25″W / 41.76611°N 74.15694°W / 41.76611; -74.15694
Basin countries	United States
Surface elevation	1,253 ft (382 m)
Settlements	New Paltz

1858 painting of Lake Mohonk

Lake Mohonk is a lake at the northern end of New Paltz, New York, United States, in Ulster County about 14 miles (23 km) northwest of Poughkeepsie. The small lake, one-half mile (800 m) long and 60 feet (18 m) deep, is located 1,245 feet (379 m) above sea level in the towns of Rochester and Marbletown near Sky Top Mountain, at 1,542 feet (470 m) one of the highest peaks of the Shawangunk Ridge. The peak of Sky Top lies just east of the south end of the lake; to the west, Eagle Cliff rises to a height of 1,412 feet (430 m). Competitors in the Survival of the Shawangunks swim the lake as their final aquatic leg of the competition.^[1]

The development of the region into a summer resort and the holding of Indian and arbitration conferences here were fueled by the Quaker Albert Keith Smiley (born 1828), an 1849 graduate of Haverford College (1849) who conducted a Philadelphia school from 1853 to 1857, was principal of the Oak Grove Academy in Vassalboro, Maine from 1858 to 1860, was principal and superintendent of the Friends' school in Providence, Rhode Island from 1860 to 1879 and became a member of the United States Board of Indian Commissioners in 1879.

In 1869 Smiley bought a tract of land at the northern end of Lake Mohonk on which he built a hotel, the Mohonk Mountain House. The prestigious resort,^[2] home to a number of conferences (including the Lake Mohonk Conference on International Arbitration), is a National Historic Landmark.^[3] The Daniel Smiley Research Center at the lake is part of the Mohonk Preserve,^[4] and the area attracts visitors for its fall foliage.^[5]