Hey lurker from New Jersey! Who are you and why do you live in such a funny-sounding town? Every time I see the name Hopatcong I start saying it in my mind and can’t stop for an hour or two. Is it some sort of wacky Indian name?
Hey lurker from New Jersey! Who are you and why do you live in such a funny-sounding town? Every time I see the name Hopatcong I start saying it in my mind and can’t stop for an hour or two. Is it some sort of wacky Indian name?
Jennie, you’re a crack up. Trying to call out your lurkers from anonymity.
Wacky indian name?? Don’t you have google??
During the era of the Morris Canal, the Lake increasingly became called Lake Hopatcong. While the origin of the word “Hopatcong” is unknown, it is believed that the word comes from the Lenape word “hapakonoesson,” meaning pipestone. It is impossible to know the exact context in which the Lenape may have used this word in referring to the Lake. It may have been a reference to the soapstone and other soft stone found in the area that was used in pipe making. It has also been suggested that the term referred to the jagged shape of the Lake’s shoreline. The one thing of which we are sure is that “Hopatcong” does not mean “honey waters of many coves” or any similar derivative. This definition was invented at the turn of this century by individuals seeking to evoke a romantic image of Lake Hopatcong that would help to promote the developing tourist trade.
Sounds like a wacky Indian name to me.