Houvenkopf or Hovenkopf Mountain is a mountain in Bergen County

Bergen County, New Jersey

Bergen County is the most populous county of the state of New Jersey, United States. As of the 2010 United States Census, its population was 905,116. The county is part of the New York City Metropolitan Area. Its county seat is Hackensack...

, New Jersey

New Jersey

New Jersey is a state in the Northeastern and Middle Atlantic regions of the United States. , its population was 8,791,894. It is bordered on the north and east by the state of New York, on the southeast and south by the Atlantic Ocean, on the west by Pennsylvania and on the southwest by Delaware...

, extending into New York, where it forms the western side of the southern entrance to Ramapo Pass. The major peak on the New Jersey side rises to 931 feet (284 m) and is known as Stag Hill. It is separated by a deep saddle from the major peak on the New York side, the "Hooge Kop" proper, which rises to about 770 feet (234.7 m) and overlooks Hillburn

Hillburn, New York

Hillburn is a village in the Town of Ramapo Rockland County, New York, United States located north of Suffern; east of Orange County, New York; south of Viola and west of Montebello. It is considered to be one of the more rural communities in Rockland County...

 to the north and Suffern

Suffern, New York

Suffern is a village in the Town of Ramapo, Rockland County, New York, United States located north of the State of New Jersey; east of Hillburn; south of Montebello and west of Airmont...

 to the east. It is part of the Ramapo Mountains

Ramapo Mountains

The Ramapo Mountains are a forested chain of the Appalachian mountains in northeastern New Jersey and southeastern New York in the United States...

.

History

The mountain's name is derived from the Dutch "Hooge Kop", meaning "High Head". Locals used to spread grain around the summit boulders and catch passenger pigeon

Passenger Pigeon

The Passenger Pigeon or Wild Pigeon was a bird, now extinct, that existed in North America and lived in enormous migratory flocks until the early 20th century...

s.

The mountain was the subject of a poem, "Mount Houvenkopf", by Joyce Kilmer

Joyce Kilmer

Alfred Joyce Kilmer was an American journalist, poet, literary critic, lecturer, and editor. Though a prolific poet whose works celebrated the common beauty of the natural world as well as his religious faith, Kilmer is remembered most for a short poem entitled "Trees" , which was published in...

, written in 1918. In 1928, the Ku Klux Klan

Ku Klux Klan

Ku Klux Klan, often abbreviated KKK and informally known as the Klan, is the name of three distinct past and present far-right organizations in the United States, which have advocated extremist reactionary currents such as white supremacy, white nationalism, and anti-immigration, historically...

 burned fiery crosses

Cross burning

Cross burning or cross lighting is a practice widely associated with the Ku Klux Klan, although the historical practice long predates the Klan's inception...

 on the mountainside, easily visible in Suffern and beyond.

Parts of the mountain, including the summit of Stag Hill, are now part of the Ramapo Mountain Reservation

Ramapo Mountain Reservation

The Ramapo Valley Reservation is a 3000+acre county park located in Mahwah, New Jersey in Bergen County, bordering Ringwood State Park to the north and the Ramapo Mountain State Forest to the south. It is also known as the Ramapo Reservation and the Ramapo Valley County Reservation...

and are publicly accessible.