Ponkhockie

Ponkhockie lies near the mouth of Rondout Creek, where it joins the Hudson River below the wooded interior. This was part of the country of the Esopus, a Munsee-speaking Lenape people. The river landing became a place of trade, and beaver pelts drew Dutch merchants to the area in the early seventeenth century.

The Dutch established a trading post here around 1614. Farther inland, settlers later founded the village of Wiltwyck, which grew into Kingston. In 1658 the colonial authorities ordered a stockade built around the village. Competition over land and colonial settlement brought the Dutch into violent conflict with the Esopus in the wars of 1659–1660 and 1663–1664. Rondout's position at the creek mouth continued to give the surrounding settlements access to the Hudson waterway.