Mohonk is a name of Native American origin first given to a lake high in the Shawangunk Mountains of Ulster County. Mohonk Lake was sculpted eons ago by the crushing weight of advancing glaciers. Nature's handiwork resulted in a crystal blue lake rimmed by stately hemlock trees and sheer conglomerate cliffs. Mohonk Mountain House was established at the lake in 1869 by Quaker twins Albert and Alfred Smiley. They and younger half-brother, Daniel Smiley, created a mountaintop haven for their guests-a 251-room hotel set on acres of woodlands and gardens. Today Daniel Smiley's descendants welcome visitors to the last of the grand Victorian hotels in the Shawangunk and Catskill Mountain region. The Mohonk Preserve was carved from lands of the Mountain House beginning in 1963 and bears witness to the vision of the Smiley family. Its mission is to protect over 6,400 acres of semi-wilderness through its education, research, and land stewardship programs. Today, it is the largest nature preserve supported by members and visitors in New York State.

Mohonk is a name of Native American origin first given to a lake high in the Shawangunk Mountains of Ulster County. Mohonk Lake was sculpted eons ago by the crushing weight of advancing glaciers. Nature's handiwork resulted in a crystal blue lake rimmed by stately hemlock trees and sheer conglomerate cliffs. Mohonk Mountain House was established at the lake in 1869 by Quaker twins Albert and Alfred Smiley. They and younger half-brother, Daniel Smiley, created a mountaintop haven for their guests-a 251-room hotel set on acres of woodlands and gardens. Today Daniel Smiley's descendants welcome visitors to the last of the grand Victorian hotels in the Shawangunk and Catskill Mountain region. The Mohonk Preserve was carved from lands of the Mountain House beginning in 1963 and bears witness to the vision of the Smiley family. Its mission is to protect over 6,400 acres of semi-wilderness through its education, research, and land stewardship programs. Today, it is the largest nature preserve supported by members and visitors in New York State.

"Mohonk and the Smileys: A National Historic Landmark and the Family That Created It chronicles the history and enduring legacy of a unique resort whose aim has always been to create and sustain a peaceful, contemplative environment for the betterment of human relations and for improved relations between people and the world around them. It is a story that includes the creation of the largest privately owned nature preserve in New York State, international arbitration conventions that predated the Hague Conventions, and landmark efforts to improve the plight of American Indians and African Americans--all while dealing day by day with the logistical challenges of operating a complex private enterprise successfully over the span of 150 years of rapid technological and social change. In 1869 twin brothers Albert and Alfred Smiley purchased a rough-and-tumble ten-room inn and 280 acres of surrounding land on the shores of Lake Mohonk in the wild and isolated Shawangunk Mountains. Year by year the Smileys expanded the hotel, bought surrounding farms to feed their guests, built stables and carriage houses, a power plant and blacksmith shop, planted acres of flower gardens, and created a vast network of roads and hiking trails for guests to access the singular beauty of the Shawangunks--and all was done with the then-unusual business philosophy of careful respect for the environment. Soon the little guest house had become a grand Victorian castle seeming to rise organically from the Shawangunk ridge on which it perched. It was the heyday of the grand hotel era in the Catskills and the "great camps" in the Adirondacks. Then, one by one nearly all of those hotels and camps either went up in flames or were abandoned, left, like the great Catskill Mountain House, to rot in the wind and rain. But not the Smiley's Lake Mohonk Mountain House. Despite two world wars, the Great Depression, the rise of automobile and airplane travel, changing demographics and cultural upheavals, steadily increasing tax burdens--events and factors that finished off most of its competitors--one hundred and fifty years later the little inn on the shores of Lake Mohonk has not only survived, but thrived and grown into a world-famous mountain resort in a spectacular setting with over 260 guest rooms, luxury amenities, and acclaimed dining--and still family-owned and operated, five generations later." -- Provided by publisher

Learn how environmentally sound principles & practices are applied to the development & management of golf courses. The 68 articles in this collection discuss environmental benefits, environmental programs, financial & economic issues in course development, course design, legal issues, wildlife preservation, & water & wetlands issues. Many environmentally friendly courses are profiled. Some of the more specialized subjects covered are: the AmerAquatic Bird Survey, environmental design work by various course architects, cactus forest transplanted, total ecosystems, biotechnology, a goose pond, drainage problems, IPM, managing endangered & threatened species, Environmental Steward Award, desalination, & irrigation of arid land. This is a NGF InfoPac publication. InfoPacs are bound collections of full-text articles, compiled & copied from various golf industry magazines, newsletters, & journals.

Well-illustrated history of a small, hardscrabble community in the Shawangunk Mountains of New York¿s Ulster County where today¿s Mohonk Preserve and Minnewaska State Park Preserve now lie. From early post-Revolutionary days through World War II, a few hardy families scratched out a living atop the mountain, defying an unforgiving and isolated terrain. For generations they lived off the land, working subsistence farms and harvesting raw materials from the forest and earth, having only each other to rely upon. Today only a few vestiges of this proud and independent community remain. The rest has vanished along with the way of life that sustained it, but in the pages of this book Robi Josephson and Bob Larsen breathe life into this lost world and the people who once called it home. This long-awaited work tells the remarkable story of the Trapps people and how the hamlet was honored with placement on the National and State Registers of Historic Places¿the first time New York State has recognized the historic importance of a vanished, hardscrabble community.

From Manhattan and Brooklyn's trendiest neighbourhoods to the far-flung edges of the outer boroughs, Ellis captures the lost and lonely corners of New York. Step inside the New York you never knew, with 200 eerie images of urban decay

This comprehensive trail guide describes hiking, mountain biking, and cross-country skiing routes on more than 200 miles of trails in New York State's legendary Shawangunk Mountain Range.