A 440-acre mountaintop property overlooking Ellenville will become part of Minnewaska State Park Preserve, filling a significant gap in the protected lands of the Shawangunk Ridge.
The Open Space Institute announced on August 25 that it had purchased Mt. Cathalia, also known as Mt. Meenagha, for $3.3 million from Morgan Barrington Financial Services. The property is the largest remaining undeveloped, privately owned parcel adjoining Minnewaska and connects two previously unlinked sections of the park near the Ellenville Ice Caves: the North and South Gully areas.
OSI plans to transfer the property to New York State for incorporation into Minnewaska’s Sam’s Point Area, bringing the preserve to more than 24,000 acres. Until that transfer and preparations for public use are complete, Mt. Cathalia will remain closed to visitors.
“Mt. Cathalia is an extraordinary landscape on every level—environmentally, recreationally, and historically,” says OSI president and CEO Erik Kulleseid. He described the acquisition as another step toward “a corridor of permanently conserved and connected land along the entire Shawangunk Ridge.”
Since 1974, OSI has protected more than 40,000 acres in the Shawangunks. Its acquisitions have added 14,000 acres to Minnewaska, more than doubling the park’s size. The organization has also restored nearly 18 miles of Minnewaska’s historic carriage roads and raised $3 million for the Lake Minnewaska Visitor Center, which opened in 2020.
Elsewhere along the ridge, OSI developed the six-mile River-to-Ridge Trail in New Paltz, helped protect nearly 20 miles of the Wallkill Valley Rail Trail, raised $1.5 million for the restoration of the Rosendale Trestle, and acquired the 118-acre Joppenbergh Mountain property.
Mt. Cathalia adds an ecologically important link to that network. Its former ski runs have become meadows surrounded by mature chestnut oak and pine forests, Shawangunk conglomerate outcroppings, and hemlock-lined gullies. OSI estimates that nearly the entire property possesses above-average habitat resilience, meaning its varied elevations and microclimates may offer wildlife refuge as the climate changes.
The land also sits within the Sandburg Creek watershed. North Gully serves as an emergency drinking-water source for Ellenville, while both North and South Gully eventually feed waters flowing toward the Hudson River. The property’s forests and soils store an estimated 132,000 metric tons of carbon dioxide equivalent.
The mountain carries an unusual social history as well. In the late 19th century, the Terwilliger family operated one of Wawarsing’s first prominent summer resorts there. In the 1950s, Chinese American attorney, businessman, and Army veteran Joseph Tso purchased the property and renamed it Mt. Cathalia, meaning “a little bit of China.” The hotel and ski area he established became the country’s only Chinese American-owned and operated ski resort, welcoming Chinese Americans and other minority visitors excluded from many resorts of the era.
“Mt. Cathalia means so much to our family,” says Tso’s children, Cecilia and Stan Tso. “We are hoping that OSI’s efforts will fulfill our parents’ dream of sharing Mt. Cathalia with everyone.”
Ellenville Mayor Evan Trent says the acquisition protects both a defining part of the village’s viewshed and one of the largest tracts in its watershed. He hopes that, once integrated into Minnewaska, the mountain can again become “a public open space recreational hub for our area.”
