Coxing Kill trout:  The Shawangunk Mountains--- or Gunks are they are known--- run from Kingston south to Port Jervis, the eastern ridge of the Appalachian Mountains.  While this name has a Dutch derivative, Native Americans referred to the Gunks as “smoky air.”

In Edward G. Henry’s handbook--- Gunks Trails--- the author wrote, “If the Shawangunks were said to have a heart, it would be the Trapps and Sky Top. … The Trapps titled, hard strata boldly rise from the small, glacier-enhanced gap.  The Delaware Indians used this mountain pass as a major war trail.  The Trapps is Dutch name meaning ‘staircase’, but the name was actually applied to a small settlement below the cliffs.”

Coxing Clove is centered by the Trapps and Sky Top; it was first settled in the late 1700s primarily by inhabitants of Dutch descent.  Lake Minnewaska is also found here, out of which drains a branch of the upper Coxing Kill flowing downstream through the glacier gap.  This lake was once known as Coxing Pond.

The Delaware Indians and Dutch are long since gone, as is the Trapps hamlet.  Perhaps today this area is best known for its world-class rock climbing, but brook trout are still to be found.

Coxing Kill trout, 11x14 (Sold):