Manhattan · New York County
Inwood Hill Park Shorakkopoch Rock
NYC Parks
- Location
- Within Inwood Hill Park, near the Henry Hudson Monument
- Size
- Part of Inwood Hill Park (196 acres) acres
- Hours
- 6 AM - 1 AM daily
- Type
- NYC Parks
Shorakkopoch Rock is a glacial boulder in Inwood Hill Park that marks the legendary site where Peter Minuit purchased Manhattan from the Lenape people in 1626 for goods valued at 60 guilders, roughly $24 in the most famous real estate transaction in history.
A bronze plaque on the rock, installed in 1954, commemorates the transaction, though historians debate whether the purchase actually occurred at this specific location. The Lenape may not have understood the European concept of land ownership that the transaction implied.
The name Shorakkopoch comes from the Lenape language and is believed to refer to the area's shoreline. The rock sits in the last remaining natural forest on Manhattan Island, surrounded by trees that may be descendants of the forest the Lenape knew.
Inwood Hill Park's 196 acres contain the most significant collection of pre-colonial landscape features remaining on Manhattan, including the caves, the forest, the salt marsh, and this glacial boulder that is said to mark the island's transfer from its original inhabitants.
Shorakkopoch Rock stands as the most symbolically charged geological feature in Manhattan, a glacial boulder that marks (or is said to mark) the moment when a 10,000-year relationship between a people and their island ended for $24.