Jayne's Hill
| Jayne's Hill | |
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Summit of Jayne's Hill in 2010, with plaque of Walt Whitman's "Paumanok"
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| Highest point | |
| Elevation | 400.9 ft (122.2 m) |
| Prominence | 400.9 ft (122.2 m) |
| Coordinates | 40°48′54″N 73°25′30″W / 40.81500°N 73.42500°WCoordinates: 40°48′54″N 73°25′30″W / 40.81500°N 73.42500°W |
| Geography | |
 Jayne's Hill
Location of Jayne's Hill in New York State
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| Location | West Hills, NY, U.S. |
| Parent range | Wheatley Hills |
| Topo map | USGS Huntington |
| Climbing | |
| Easiest route | road and trail |
Jayne's Hill (also known as High Hill, West Hills, Oakley's Hill, and Janes Hill) is the highest point on Long Island, New York, with an elevation of between 387 feet (118 m) and 400.9 feet (122.2 m) above sea level. It is situated on the Harbor Hill moraine, a terminal moraine that makes up the northern spine of Long Island in West Hills County Park in Suffolk County, a little more than a mile to the north of Melville.
The United States Board on Geographic Names based on a 1903 ruling calls it "High Hill." On the Geographic Names Information System it is listed as 387 feet based on the National Elevation Dataset.
Suffolk County which owns the peak calls it Jayne's Hill and lists its elevation on its website as 400 feet. An interpretative sign in the park refers to it as "Jaynes Hill" (no apostrophe) and lists the height as 401 feet.
Jayne's Hill has been known by several different names.
In 1825 Long Island historian Silas Wood called it "Oakley's High Hill Field" with a surveyor telling him it was 354.5 feet (108.1 m). At the time it was considered the third highest point on Long Island behind Harbor Hill in Nassau County (reported then at 384 feet (117 m)) and Layton Hill's in Wheatley, New York (just south of the Long Island University C.W. Post Campus(reported then at 380 feet (120 m)).
Walt Whitman was born near the site of Jayne's Hill, and visited the summit. In 1881, Whitman wrote: "I write this back again at West Hills on a high elevation (the highest spot on Long Island?) Of Jayne's Hill. . . . A view of thirty of forty, or even fifty or more miles, especially to the east and south and southwest: the Atlantic Ocean to the latter points in the distance - a glimpse or so of Long Island Sound to the north."
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Wikipedia