[2] Smithtown founder Richard Smith's original holdings included the headwaters of the Nissequogue River east to a "freshwater pond called Raconkamuck," which translates as "the boundary fishing place" in the Algonquian language.

What is now known as Lake Ronkonkoma served as a boundary between lands occupied by four Native American communities: Nissequogues, Setaukets, Secatogues and Unkechaugs.

The Smithtown side of Lake Ronkonkoma was settled by the 1740s, but it was not until the late 1890s that the area gained widespread public attention.

That's when boarding houses and hotels were erected to accommodate a growing number of tourists drawn by claims that the lake's waters had special healing powers.

The Long Island Rail Road, which was completed to nearby Lakeland in 1842 (the depot was moved to Ronkonkoma in 1883), helped transform what had been a sleepy farming hamlet.

Lake Ronkonkoma holds large bass but locating them is a challenge due to the scarcity of natural structure to attract these fish.

The idea that schools of piranha are ravaging the depths of Lake Ronkonkoma is unfounded and highly unlikely, as there undoubtedly would have been more attacks on bathers and more evidence of devoured fish.

Lake Ronkonkoma was a popular Long Island summer resort in the late 19th and early 20th centuries.

Long Island folklore[6] attributes many drownings in the lake to an alleged Native American spirit residing in the water.

The chair of the local historic commission says she has documented 126 lake deaths from the late 1700s through 2022, and a longtime lifeguard's book counts 160 drownings mostly from the 1800s through 1970.