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56-625: The Trapps Mountain Hamlet Historic District is located on the Shawangunk Ridge in Gardiner , New York, United States. It is a large area that covers the site of a settlement that thrived there from the late 18th to mid-20th centuries. Inhabitants practiced subsistence farming , making it one of the rare such communities in the East to have left any trace remaining. They supplemented that with

112-518: A better way of life. Irving Van Leuven was the last Trapps resident to live the old ways. Born and raised in the Trapps, Irv lived in a house without electricity or running water until his death in 1956. Irv was the last in the Trapps to burn charcoal and shave barrel hoops, skills he had learned from his father and grandfather. Another Van Leuven home, bought in the 1920s by Mohonk Mountain House, became part of

168-399: A boundary or field marker. Ben Fowler of the Trapps owned this property of about 150 acres, keeping about a third as pasture and meadow, and a few acres in rye, oats, and buckwheat for family use. - Fowler burying ground, where Ben Fowler and other members of his family are buried, including several of his young grandchildren. The earliest headstone dates to 1866. At the end of the path beyond

224-471: A cool microenvironment that supports several northern species such as black spruce , hemlock, rowan , and creeping snowberry (Gaultheria hispidula), and bryophytes such as Isopterygium distichaceum. These ice caves are concentrated near Sam's Point in the northern Shawangunks. Larger limestone caverns occur along the lower slopes of the Rondout and Delaware River valleys. Lakes and wetlands occur mostly on

280-560: A few emergent marshes. The ridge is primarily Shawangunk Conglomerate , a hard, silica - cemented sedimentary conglomerate of white quartz pebbles and sandstone that directly overlies the Martinsburg Formation , a thick sequence of turbidite deposits of dark gray shale and greywacke . The Martinsburg Formation was deposited in a deep ocean basin during the Ordovician (470 million years ago). The Shawangunk Conglomerate

336-409: A horse, cow or two, a handful of chickens, perhaps a few pigs. They supplemented their subsistence farm crops by selling butter, fruit, and eggs. Trapps men also shaved barrel hoops; peeled hemlock and oak bark for nearby leather tanneries; carved millstones from conglomerate rock; and burned charcoal. The Van Leuvens were a Trapps family widely known for burning Shawangunk charcoal. Huckleberry picking

392-603: A low flat made by the Rondout Creek and Sandburgh Creek, the Basha Kill and various small kills, as well as the Neversink River and Delaware River at the southern end. These adjacent valleys are underlain by relatively weak sedimentary rock (e.g., sandstone, shale, limestone). There is an unusual diversity of vegetation on the ridge, containing species typically found north of this region alongside species typically found to

448-550: A main north-south route in the Trapps; the town could no longer afford its maintenance. Pandemics, such as the Spanish Flu of 1918, also reduced the population. The construction of U.S. Route 44/55 in the late 1920s helped accelerate the decline of the Trapps. The new, paved highway bypassed the hamlet center and cut some properties in two. Many of the remaining residents sold out completely and moved to nearby villages, such as Ellenville, Walden, and New Paltz, where they found work and

504-457: A variety of other trades, primarily in the forest products industry, with most inhabitants gradually coming to work at nearby mountain resorts in the 20th century. The last resident died in 1956. Only foundations remain for most of the buildings, and only six remain standing. Those that do show a unique structural system that suggests an influence of the Native American tribes that lived in

560-475: Is also a widely used familiar term for the ridge and has been in use at least since the mid-19th century. In a letter dated August and postmarked August 8, 1838, Hudson River School painter Thomas Cole corresponding with painter A.B. Durand writes, "Do let me hear from you when you get among the Gunks . I hope you will find every thing there your heart can wish." The Shawangunks, particularly around Lake Mohonk, were

616-530: Is an inanimate intransitive verb meaning "it is smoky air" or "there is smoky air". Its noun-like participle is schawank, meaning "that which is smoky air". Adding the locative suffix gives us schawangunk "in the smoky air". Whritenour has suggested that the name derives from the burning of a Munsee fort by the Dutch at the eastern base of the ridge in 1663 (a massacre ending the Second Esopus War ). Use of

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672-628: Is listed on the National Historic Lookout Register. The tower remains, but both it and the surrounding area are closed to the public. In 1912, the Conservation Commission built a wood fire lookout tower on the ridge east of Ellenville on High Point. In 1919, the Conservation Commission replaced it with a 47-foot-tall (14 m) Aermotor LS40 steel fire lookout tower. Due to increased use of aerial detection,

728-482: Is not heavily populated; its only settlement of consequence is the hamlet of Cragsmoor . In the past, the ridge was chiefly noted for mining and logging and a boom-era of huckleberry picking. Fires were regularly set to burn away the undergrowth and stimulate new growth of huckleberry bushes. Today the ridge has become known for its outdoor recreation, most notably as one of the major rock climbing areas of North America, with many guides offering rock climbing trips in

784-481: Is now reforested, part of the Mohonk Preserve or Minnewaska State Park Preserve , or privately owned. A network of hiking trails and unpaved carriage roads can be accessed from the two nature preserves. The nearest large villages to the Trapps were New Paltz to the east and High Falls to the northeast. The mountainous topography of the area has been sculpted in large part by glacial action and stream erosion by

840-660: Is owned by the Mohonk Mountain House and rock climbing requires authorized guides. Rock climbing is also permitted on the Peterskill and Dickie Barre cliff areas of Minnewaska State Park Preserve . The height of the cliff varies along the ridgeline, to a maximum of some 300 feet (91 m). In 1930, the Conservation Department built a 60-foot-tall (18 m) Aermotor LS40 steel fire lookout tower and observers cabin on Sayers Hill (Pocatello Mountain). The tower

896-404: Is trapped by the bedrock or till, there are interspersed lakes and wetland areas. Soils on top of shale are thicker, less acidic, and more fertile. Topography on the top of the northern Shawangunks is irregular due to a series of faults that form secondary plateaus and escarpments. Ice caves are deep fissures in the conglomerate bedrock that retain ice through much of the summer, resulting in

952-470: The Near Trapps , The Trapps , and Skytop . Of these four, The Trapps, is the longest, the most popular and most accessible, with the largest number of climbing routes . The Near Trapps is located immediately across Route 44/55 from The Trapps, and is second in popularity. Millbrook Mountain , the highest and most southerly cliff, is the most remote, and sees the least climbing activity. The Skytop cliff

1008-542: The 1840s, the Trapps hamlet was large enough to support its own one-room school, with one established in 1850. Seven years later, the New Paltz and Wawarsing Turnpike was built through the Trapps; present-day U.S. Route 44/55 follows much of the old turnpike route. Turnpike investors hoped to open up markets for products from the Catskills, but within a few years the turnpike went bankrupt. Still, it allowed increased traffic through

1064-695: The Appalachian Trail at High Point State Park in New Jersey. It generally follows the spectacular Shawangunk Ridge north, occasionally using abandoned roads and rail beds. The New York/New Jersey Trail Conference lists seventeen recommended hikes on the Ridge. The development of rock climbing in the Shawangunks is attributed to Fritz Wiessner and Hans Kraus , pioneers of modern rock climbing. It has historically been centered around four major cliffs: Millbrook ,

1120-499: The Bruyn [purchase of Jan., 1682, the first appearance of the name in documentary record], as a phrase invented by the Indians to describe some feature of the landscape. Fried also notes that the name's swift spread in the deed record suggests it was in use as a proper name before the Bruyn purchase. Shawangunk appears nowhere in reference to the fort in the extensive, translated Dutch record of

1176-494: The Coxing Kill and Peters Kill, which provided water and water power for the Trapps people. Over time, however, these two natural forces resulted in shallow, rocky soil, which helped to limit the hamlet's population. The district's highest elevation is roughly 1,100 feet above sea level, falling to about 700 feet at its lowest point. Directly east are the Trapps and Near Trapps climbing cliffs, which face New Paltz and are managed by

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1232-465: The Coxing Kill at the intersection of a centuries-old path and an unpaved colonial road. The Trapps hamlet itself grew along the Coxing Kill in the upper Clove, a Dutch word meaning cleft or valley. Trapps families built homes of log, plank, and frame. A plank house is unique as a type of American vernacular architecture. It consists of vertical planks, or rough-cut thick boards, which were nailed together to form walls, raised in place, and connected at

1288-527: The Mohonk Preserve protects and manages over 8,000 acres of the Shawangunk Ridge, including the world-renowned Trapps climbing cliffs, and features over 70 miles of historic carriage roads and trails. In 2007 Shawangunk Ridge State Forest and Witches Hole State Forest were added. The Long Path long-distance hiking trail follows the ridge from Sullivan County to the vicinity of Kerhonkson ; south of it

1344-581: The Mohonk Preserve later in the century. During the 1960s and for several decades after, members of the Appalachian Mountain Club leased this house, affectionately known as the Appy Cabin, as a base for rock climbing on the nearby cliffs. Recognizing the building's value, the Mohonk Preserve restored the cabin, renamed it in honor of its last resident Eli Van Leuven, and opened it as a historic structure. The Mohonk Preserve also secured designation for

1400-534: The Mohonk Preserve. The gap or notch between these cliff escarpments has provided access for traffics over the centuries, including the modern-day U.S. Route 44/55. During the colonial era, much of the northern Shawangunks were first partitioned into two land patents, the Groote Transport ("Great Transaction") Patent of 1730, and the Nineteen Partners Tract of 1770. These land patents covered most of

1456-681: The Phillips family in 1955 but were closed down in the 1970s. Both hotels burned down, and a proposal by the Marriott Corporation to redevelop the area as a private resort and condominiums led to widespread opposition. As a result, New York State arranged for the Palisades Interstate Park Commission to buy the property and manage it as Minnewaska State Park Preserve, putting that section of the Trapps mountain hamlet into public ownership. Eli Van Leuven Cabin. Built about 1889 in

1512-577: The Second Esopus War. Shawangunk became associated with the ridge during the 18th century. In the original Lenape, the word is tri-syllabic, Sha-wan-gun, although in an occasional 18th-century deed it is written with a fourth syllable. The correct pronunciation approximates sha (short a) - wan (as in want) - goon (as in book). The trailing k is sub vocal and modifies the sound of the n. European colonists began to truncate Shawangunk into "Shongum" ( / ˈ ʃ ɒ n ɡ ʌ m / SHON -gum ). Shongum

1568-584: The Shawangunk Conglomerate, are exposed north of Shawangunk Ridge in the Rosendale Natural Cement Region, where they can be directly examined in abandoned mines. Strata along the eastern margin of Shawangunk Ridge are truncated by erosion, resulting in the prominent cliffs characteristic of Shawangunk Ridge. The Shawangunk Conglomerate is very hard and resistant to weathering ; whereas the underlying shale erodes relatively easily. Thus,

1624-740: The Shawangunk Ridge Trail connects to the Appalachian Trail near High Point . There are several old carriage trails on the Ridge including; Smiley Road from Ellenville into Minnewaska State Park Preserve; and Old Plank Road and Old Mountain Road in Shawangunk Ridge State Forest. Many of the foot trails are updated and maintained by the New York-New Jersey Trail Conference . There are also many waterfalls in

1680-484: The Shawangunk region, such as: VerKeerderkill Falls , Awosting Falls , and Vernooy Kill Falls. In 2004, a luxury development plan for buildings has threatened the ridge line, and as a result a grassroots "Save the Ridge" campaign has become extremely popular in the area. In 2006 a court ordered the sale of property by the private owner to settle a case brought on by the developer. The Open Space Institute of NY purchased

1736-506: The Trapps mountain hamlet as a historic district on the New York State and National Registers for Historic Places. In addition, Preserve staff has identified about 65 cultural and historic sites within the district, including cellar holes (stone foundations) of former buildings, water-powered sawmills, bridge abutments, stone walls, stone quarries, charcoal pits, and burying grounds (cemeteries). The Smiley hotels at Minnewaska were bought by

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1792-427: The Trapps, and the hamlet grew to include a hotel, boarding houses, a store and a chapel. In 1887, Philip H. Smith noted these features in his book, "Legends of the Shawangunks." The 1880s and 1890s were the peak years of the hamlet when about 40 to 50 families lived in the Trapps. In 1859, John F. Stokes established the first mountain inn and tavern at Mohonk Lake. In 1869, Quaker Twins Albert and Alfred Smiley acquired

1848-650: The area at the time it was settled. Today most of them are on protected lands in the area, with a few privately owned. In 2000 the area was designated a historic district and listed on the National Register of Historic Places . The Trapps historic district contains about 433 acres centered along the US 44 / NY 55 highway and the Coxing Kill atop the Shawangunk in the northwestern portion of Gardiner, with some portions overlapping into neighboring Rochester . Most of that area

1904-550: The area. Also known for its biodiversity and scenic character, the ridge has been designated by The Nature Conservancy as a significant area for its conservation programs. The English name, Shawangunk, derives from the Dutch Scha-wan-gunk, the closest European transcription from the colonial deed record of the Munsee Lenape , Schawankunk (German orthography). Lenape linguist Raymond Whritenour reports that schawan

1960-847: The burying ground is the Eli Van Leuven Cabin. Visitors can also see remains of the former Enderly sawmill and farm, including the Enderly family burying ground, by driving west along U.S. Route 44/55 a short distance past the West Trapps Trailhead, and turning right onto Clove Road to the Preserve's Coxing Trailhead. Shawangunk Ridge The ridgetop, which widens considerably at its northern end, has many public and private protected areas , including Wurtsboro Ridge State Forest, Shawangunk Ridge State Forest, Minnewaska State Park Preserve , Witch's Hole State Park and Mohonk Preserve. The ridge

2016-456: The corners with simple lap joints. There are no corner posts or studs. Planks and hand-hewn beams provided the basic structure or skeleton of the house. Due to the hamlet's isolation, a cultural lag existed there, with the Trapps people continuing to build log and plank houses through the 1800s. Thin, rocky soil prevented the establishment of large farms in the Trapps. Families grew a few acres of corn, buckwheat, rye, oats, or potatoes; they kept

2072-503: The eastern portion of the colonial Town of Rochester and opened the way for settlement of the Trapps after the Revolutionary War. Early settlers moving up from the surrounding valleys were primarily of Dutch descent, with one or two families of English descent. A will of the 1780s refers to a sawmill site later associated with the Enderly family. For about a century, Enderly families operated their farm, sawmill, and blacksmith forge on

2128-481: The flat-topped ridges at the northern and southern ends of the area and, to a lesser extent, along the western side of the middle part of the ridge. Lakes and ponds occurring on conglomerates tend to be clear, nutrient-poor, and very acidic, due to the limited buffering capacity of the bedrock. The northern Shawangunks have five lakes, the "sky lakes," which are, from north to south: Mohonk Lake, Lake Minnewaska, Lake Awosting, Mud Pond, and Lake Maratanza. The pH in four of

2184-485: The lakes averages about 4 (acidic); Lake Mohonk, which partially overlays shale bedrock and is therefore partially buffered, is closer to neutral pH (7.0). The Shawangunks contain mainly public lands as well as several small residential areas. A large portion of the northern Ridge is protected by Minnewaska State Park Preserve , which also now manages Sam's Point Preserve with more than 100 miles (160 km) of hiking trails and several climbing areas. Established in 1963,

2240-578: The land and has signed it over to Minnewaska State Park Preserve. The Trust for Public Land and Open Space Institute actually agreed to purchase the land for $ 17 million. At closing, however, the contract was assigned and title was taken in the name of the Palisades Interstate Park Commission , a federally chartered commission, although the funds for the purchase apparently came from the New York state Environmental Protection Fund. Unlike

2296-534: The major public land holdings on the Shawangunk Ridge, the Mohonk Preserve is a private land trust requiring a day fee depending on use. In May 2007 the state Department of Environmental Conservation initiated the development of its Shawangunk Ridge Unit Management Plan to include Shawangunk Multiple Use Area , Witch's Hole State Forest , Shawangunk Ridge State Forest , Roosa Gap State Forest , Wurtsboro Ridge State Forest , Huckleberry Ridge State Forest , and three detached Forest Preserve parcels. The goal of

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2352-524: The mountain houses, as well as a network of trails and unpaved carriage roads for guest use. The Trapps, the Clove, and neighboring sister hamlets provided that skilled labor. The hamlet declined after 1900 as technological advances replaced mountain industries. Wooden hoops for securing barrel staves gave way to steel hoops; millstones bowed out to steel. About 1907, the Town of Gardiner abandoned part of Van Leuven Road,

2408-450: The name spread quickly, and it was recorded in numerous land deeds and patents after the war. Historian Marc B. Fried writes: It is conceivable that this was...the Indians' own proper name for their village [and fort] and that the name was appropriated for use in subsequent land dealings because of the proximity of the...tracts to the former Indian village....The second possibility is that the name simply came into existence in connection with

2464-434: The path is available at the trailhead kiosk or from the Preserve's Visitor Center on U.S. Route 44/55. Along the path, visitors can discover the following: - An abandoned millstone quarry, where Trapps stonecutters once blasted out stone slabs to carve and finish into millstones. - An old bridge abutment, where a bridge once allowed people, horses, and wagons to cross the brook. - An old stone fence or wall, which served as

2520-499: The plank house style, this is the only remaining building of the former Trapps hamlet on Mohonk Preserve land. The Preserve restored the cabin and opens it periodically for guided tours, which are announced on the Preserve's website . The Trapps Mountain Hamlet Path leading to the Eli Van Leuven Cabin. Following the old Van Leuven Road, this path is accessed from the Mohonk Preserve's West Trapps Trailhead on U.S. Route 44/55. A guide to

2576-452: The project was to develop "management objectives" for the properties, including those concerning permissible forms of public recreation and access. Following an announcement of the project's launch, no further statements had been issued by the DEC regarding its work as of June 2009. The Shawangunk Ridge Trail heads north approximately 40 miles (64 km), to Sam's Point Preserve in New York from

2632-478: The property, expanded the inn into a mountain house-styled hotel, and began buying available land to provide a natural retreat for their guests. In 1879, Alfred left Mohonk to open his first of two mountain houses at Minnewaska Lake to the south. These mountain hotels provided steadier employment for the Trapps people, even as many sold their land to the Smiley families at either lake. Skilled men were also needed to build

2688-442: The quartz conglomerate forms cliffs and talus slopes, particularly along the eastern margin of the ridge. The entire ridge was glaciated during the last Wisconsin glaciation , which scoured the ridges, left pockets of till , and dumped talus (blocks of rock) off the east side of the ridge. On top of the ridge, the soils are generally thin, highly acidic, low in nutrients, and droughty, but in depressions and other areas where water

2744-680: The south or restricted to the Coastal Plain. The results is an area where many regionally rare plants are found at or near the limits of their ranges. Other rare species found in the area are those adapted to the harsh conditions on the ridge. Upland communities include chestnut oak and mixed-oak forest, pine barrens including dwarf pine ridges, hemlock -northern hardwood forest, and cliff and talus slope and cave communities. Wetlands include small lakes and streams, bogs , pitch pine - blueberry peat swamps, an inland Atlantic white cypress swamp, red maple swamps, acidic seeps, calcareous seeps, and

2800-678: The subject for several Hudson River School painters. The Shawangunk Ridge is the northern end of a long ridge within the Appalachian Mountains that begins in Virginia , where it is called North Mountain , continues through Pennsylvania as Blue Mountain , becomes known as the Kittatinny Mountains after it crosses the Delaware Water Gap into New Jersey and becomes the Shawangunks at the New York state line. These mountains mark

2856-411: The tower ceased fire lookout operation at the end of the 1971 fire lookout season, and was later removed. In 1948, the Conservation Department built a 35-foot-tall (11 m) Aermotor steel fire lookout tower on the ridge northeast of Wurtsboro . Due to increased use of aerial detection, the tower ceased fire lookout operations at the end of the 1972 fire lookout season. The tower was later sold, and

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2912-551: The western and northern edge of the Great Appalachian Valley . The ridge is widest (7.5 miles (12.1 km)) near the northern end and narrow in the middle (1.25 miles (2.01 km)), with a maximum elevation of 2,289 feet (698 m) near Lake Maratanza . The ridge rises above a broad, high plain which stretches to the Hudson River to the east. On the west the low foothills of the Appalachian Mountains mingle with

2968-458: Was a major cash crop for the Trapps people from the 1800s to the mid-1900s. Families, from toddlers to grandparents, entered the berry woods from July to September, filling pails and buckets by the thousands. Pickers frequently set the woods on fire to create conditions more favorable to the berry's growth. At least one Trapps family spent summers in the vicinity of Sam's Point above Ellenville, where seasonal berry camps became popular after 1900. By

3024-770: Was deposited over the Martinsburg Formation in thick braided river deposits during the Silurian (about 420 million years ago); both sequences of sedimentary rock were subsequently deformed in a continental collision associated during the assembly of the Pangean supercontinent during the Permian (about 270 million years ago). This collision deformed strata within the ridge in a northward plunging series of asymmetric folds (e.g., anticlines and synclines ) that are inclined gently westward. These same folds, involving strata that overlie

3080-609: Was mistakenly identified as the Munsee pronunciation by the Reverend Charles Scott writing on Shawangunk's etymology for the Ulster County Historical Society in 1861. The error has been reinforced in ethnographic sources and ridge literature, and by historians, librarians, and ridge educators for more than 140 years. Both "Shawangunk" and "Shongum" are popular usages among locals native to the region. The "Gunks"

3136-477: Was purchased with funds provided from the county and town, to protect the eastern and southern slopes of the Shawangunk Ridge. The tower was dismantled and moved to its current location in 1948. The tower ceased fire lookout operations at the end of the 1988 fire lookout season. It was officially closed in early 1989 by the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation . The Graham Lookout Tower

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