[Robert S. Grumet (2014)] 1909:281). MINISCEONGO (Orange and Rockland counties). Minisceongo Creek and its branches drain a substantial area along the easternmost slopes of the Ramapo Mountain Ridge (see below). The name first appeared as Menisiakoungue Creek in an April 16, 1671, patent (State of New Jersey 1880-1949 21:17) to land at Haverstraw (see above). The South Branch of the Minisceongo Creek rises just across the low divide separating it from the headwaters of Pascack Brook (see below). The South Branch flows north past the Minisceongo Golf Course to its junction with the main branch of the Minisceongo Creek just east of Cheesecote Mountain Town Park (see above). The Main Branch flows from its own headwaters at Harriman State Park’s Lake Welch east through the Town and City of Haverstraw. It then turns north as it flows through West Haverstraw to the place where it joins with Cedar Pond Brook at Stony Point just before their conjoined waters flow into the Hudson River at the Minisceongo State Tidal Wetlands. The Tiorati Brook tributary of the Minisceongo Creek rises at Lake Tiorati just across the county line in Orange. From there, it flows east into Rockland County, where it joins Cedar Pond Brook at Cedar Flats just north of Pyngyp Hill on its way to its junction with the Minisceongo Creek at Stony Point. MINISINK (Orange and Sullivan counties). The Minisink region name currently adorns a town and a turnpike in Orange County and Minisink Battlefield Park at Minisink Ford in Sullivan County where Indian and Tory loyalists led by the Mohawk captain Joseph Brant destroyed a large detachment of Orange County militiamen sent out against them on July 22, 1779 (Hendrickson, Inners, and Osborne 2010). MOHONK (Ulster County). David Oestreicher (in Fried 2005:22) suggested that Mohonk was a shortened form of a Munsee word, maxkawenge, “hill of bears.” Whritenour thinks that Mohonk may either come from the Munsee words maxkwung, “place of bears,” or mohkwung, “place of blood.” Today, Mohonk is the name of a lake, a resort, and a preserve at the northern end of the Shawangunk Mountain Ridge (see below). The name first appeared as “the high hill Moggonck” in the Indian deed obtained by the Huguenot purchasers of the New Paltz tract on May 26, 1677 (O’Callaghan 1864:114). Fried (2005:17-23) has shown how local landowners jockeying for advantage variously applied the name to a creek, a pond, and High Top, the promontory that still dominates the area’s skyline. Mohonk, in its current form, was first bestowed on the bearing the similar-sounding name Mombasha, in neighboring Orange County (see in Part 3), trace their origin to Mount Bachon, the name first given to the hill by a surveyor in 1735. Bachon is a spelling variant of Bashan, a place of hills where the biblical city of Golan stood along the current border dividing Israel, Syria, and Lebanon. MONGAUP (Delaware and Sullivan counties). Whritenour thinks that Mongepughka, an early orthography of Mongaup, sounds like a Munsee word, *mangaapoxkw, “big rock.” Today, places bearing the name cluster in two separate parts of the Catskills. The Mongaup River drains a substantial part of southern Sullivan County. Farther north, Mongaup Creek flows through the Catskill highlands in Delaware County. New Jersey surveyor John Reading, Jr. (1915:102, 108) first documented the name of the present-day Mongaup River during the summer of 1719 while working with New York commissioners to establish a mutually acceptable border between their provinces. Noting the name of a place called Mingepughkin on July 8 during his outward journey, he identified the locale as Mongepughka upon his return on July 24. Sawmills subsequently built from Mongaup Pond through the Mongaup State Campground and the 11,967-acre Mongaup Valley State Wildlife Management Area into Willowemoc Creek (see below). Willowemoc Creek ultimately joins with the Beaver Kill before debouching into the East Branch of the Delaware River at the Town of Hancock. MOODNA (Orange County). Moodna comes from the Dutch word moordenaar, “murderer.” Tradition holds that the name marks a murderous encounter with local Indians said to have occurred during Governor Kieft’s War. Colonists subsequently referred to native people living along its banks as Murderers Creek Indians. The 16mile-long Moodna Creek drains a substantial watershed southwest of the City of Newburgh. The Moodna’s main stem forms at the junction of Satterly Creek and Otter Creek. From there, Moodna Creek flows east past Salisbury Mills and beneath the Moodna Railroad Viaduct to its junction with the Hudson River at Cornwall-onHudson. The present-day 22-mile-long Murderkill River in the State of Delaware marks a similar tradition dating to colonial times. MOON HAW (Ulster County). Moon Haw Road and what local residents call the Moonhaw Hollow (Maltby Hollow on the few maps that name the locale), currently are names of places located in the hamlet of West Shokan (see below). Both