Storm King Mountain (New York)
| Storm King Mountain | |
|---|---|
Storm King from the Breakneck Ridge train station across the Hudson
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| Highest point | |
| Elevation |
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| Prominence | 100 ft (30 m) |
| Coordinates | 41°25′58″N 73°59′41″W / 41.4328716°N 73.9945843°WCoordinates: 41°25′58″N 73°59′41″W / 41.4328716°N 73.9945843°W |
| Geography | |
| Parent range | Hudson Highlands |
| Topo map | USGS West Point |
| Climbing | |
| Easiest route | Trail hike |
Storm King Mountain is along the west bank of the Hudson River south of Cornwall-on-Hudson, New York. Together with Breakneck Ridge on the opposite bank of the river it forms "Wey-Gat" or Wind Gate, the picturesque northern gateway to the Hudson Highlands. Its distinctive curved ridge is the most prominent aspect of the view south down Newburgh Bay, from Newburgh, Beacon, and the Newburgh-Beacon Bridge. It can also be seen by southbound travelers on nearby sections of the New York State Thruway. This view was popular with early artists of the Hudson River School, and helped give them their name.
While thought of as the highest in the area, its summit reaching approximately 1,340 feet (410 m) above sea level, the eastern summit officially known as Butter Hill is actually higher, at 1,380 feet (420 m) in elevation.
On his initial voyage up the river, Henry Hudson and his crew called the mountain Klinkesberg, due to its wrinkled rock cliffs near the river. The name failed to stick, however.
Later, the early Dutch colonists of the region referred to the mountain simply as "Boterberg" (from which Butter Hill came, since the mountain looked like a lump of butter). In the middle of the 19th century, writer Nathaniel Parker Willis, who had taken up residence in the region, proposed the name:
The tallest mountain is ... looked upon as the most sure foreteller of a storm. When the white cloud-beard descends upon his breast in the morning ... there is sure to be a rain-storm before night. Standing aloft before other mountains in the chain, this sign is peculiar to him. He seems the monarch, and this seems his stately ordering of a change in the weather. Should not STORM-KING, then, be his proper title?
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Wikipedia