Walden Pond Today: "Where have all the trees and the pristine waters gone?"

Walden Pond Today

"Where have all the trees and the pristine waters gone?"*

Painting by Anna Christina Rotor

Walden Pond in acrylic as envisioned  by Anna Christina 

Rotor, then in the grade school, circa 1995. 

“I find it wholesome to be alone the greater part of the time. To be in company, even with the best, is soon wearisome and dissipating. I love to be alone. I never found the companion that was so companionable as solitude.” ― Henry David Thoreau, Walden ~

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* No, the original cabin built by Henry David Thoreau at Walden Pond in Concord, Massachusetts no longer exists:

• Deconstruction: The cabin was deconstructed shortly after Thoreau left.
• Artifacts: Some pieces of the cabin, including brick, plaster, nails, and an original timber, are housed at the Concord Museum and the Walden Woods Project. The original furniture is also housed at the Concord Museum.
• Cairn: A pile of rocks (cairn) started in 1872 by Thoreau fan Mary Newbury Adams. Visitors are encouraged to bring a small stone to add to the cairn. By the early 1870s, Thoreau’s fame had led to a regular stream of pilgrims seeking out Walden. They found little to mark Thoreau’s life until June 1872, when Bronson Alcott, father of Louisa May, visited with his friend Mary Newbury Adams and showed her where the small cabin had once stood. Noting that it was pity that there nothing to mark the spot, Adams suggested building a cairn and “then let everyone who loved Thoreau add a stone.” Alcott, a life-long friend of Henry’s agreed and added a stone to the one left by Adams. He noted in his journal of July 12-13, “Henry’s fame is sure to brighten with years, and this spot be visited by admiring readers of his works.”

     Book cover (top, left), on-site replica of the original one-room hut Thoreau 

built in 1872, and cairn (pile of stones) from Thoreau's followers.

  

The site of Thoreau's cabin is a pilgrimage site for Thoreau lovers. Walden Pond is part of the Walden Pond State Reservation and is a National Historic Landmark. (Internet)