Opening from On This Site - Native Long Island

Shahchippitchage Boundary Stones

Shahchippitchage is a Montauk boundary-mark name for a pile of stones in North Neck, in the land between Fort Pond and Lake Montauk. The name belongs to a set of 1670 Montauk boundary descriptions connected with the Nine Score Acre Purchase. The modern pin is a broad placement between the ponds, not the exact location of the stone marker. Recorded forms include Shahchippitchage and Shahchippetchuge. The name is interpreted as meaning the midway place of separation. Why Place Names Matter “Place names do more than label streets—they encode the priorities of the institutions that assign them.” — Ye Tian, The Functional Priority of Memory: Critical Toponymy and Selective Heritage-Making (2026), Abstract