MOHONK

LAKE  , 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 52 M. by stage), by the Wallkill Valley railway, a branch of the West Shore . 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 range . 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, Porto Rico and Hawaii .

The first conference on

international arbitration was held here in June 1895 .