Mohonk Lake

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Mohonk Lake is a summer settlement at the northern end of Lake Mohonk, Ulster County, New York, U.S.A., about 14 m. N.W. of Poughkeepsie. It is served from New Paltz, about 1 m. S.E. (about 5 m. by stage), by the Wallkill Valley Railroad, a branch of the West Shore Railroad. The lake is a small body of water, picturesquely situated 1245 ft. above the sea-level, on Sky Top Mountain (1542 ft.), one of the highest peaks of the Shawangunk Ridge. The highest point of Sky Top lies just east of the south end of the lake; close by, to the west, Eagle Cliff rises to a height of 1412 ft.

The development of this beautiful region into a summer resort and the holding of Indian and arbitration conferences here have been due to Albert Keith Smiley (b. 1828), a graduate of Haverford College (1849), who conducted an English and classical academy in Philadelphia in 1853-1857, was principal of the Oak Grove academy at Vassalboro, Maine, in 1858-1860, was principal and superintendent of the Friends' school at Providence, Rhode Island, in 1860-1879, and became a member of the United States Board of Indian Commissioners in 1879.

In 1869 he bought, at the northern end of Lake Mohonk, a tract of land on which he built a large hotel. Here, in October 1883, the first Conference of the Friends of the American Indian met; these conferences have since been held annually, their scope being enlarged in 1904 to include consideration of the condition of "other dependent peoples", i.e. the natives of the Philippines, Puerto Rico and Hawaii. The first conference on international arbitration was held here in June 1895.