Walden Pond!

What Is Walden Pond?

This is a kettle pond that formed 12,000-17,000 years ago as the glaciers receded from Massachusetts!

What Makes It Historical?

Already well known for its clean water, which was harvested as ice that was sold as far as Calcutta and Mumbai, Walden Pond was the setting for one of the most influential Transcendentalist experiments of the 19th Century! On July 4, 1845, Henry David Thoreau, still grieving the death of his brother and floundering in his lecturing and teaching career, got permission from his friend, Ralph Waldo Emerson, to build a small cabin near Walden Pond and practice simplicity and self reliance in the woods! His friend was kind of disappointed that Mr. Thoreau would go off by himself into the woods instead of becoming a leader, but it would end up as the experience that earned Mr. Thoreau his place in America literature!!

Over two years by Walden Pond, Mr. Thoreau drafted his first book, called A Week on the Concord and Merrimack Rivers, a publishing flop. Luckily, he’d kept a detailed journal, the whole time, which he condensed into a single season of observations and meditations, which he published as Walden, or Life in the Woods! These were the only two of his books that were published during his lifetime, though his most famous essay, Civil Disobedience, was published two years after he left Walden. He’d been inspired to write it after he was arrested for not paying a poll tax while protesting slavery during the Mexican-American War, and his essay made him a hero of personal conscience in the face of political power and injustice!

After he left Walden Pond in September 6, 1847, Mr. Thoreau returned to lecturing and working at his dad’s pencil business, eventually dying of tuberculosis on May 6, 1862. He left behind four books for his sister, Sophia, to publish, but Walden and Civil Disobedience left the most enduring legacy. Walden influenced the natural writings of John Muir and John Burroughs, while Civil Disobedience shaped the work of none other than Gandhi and Martin Luther King, Jr!

How Can I #HelpTheHelpers?

Pay the entrance fee to help maintain trails, signs, structures, and other visitor services!
Become a member of the Thoreau Society!
Donate to the Thoreau Society!
Be a responsible visitor! Please respect the signs and pathways, and treat all structures and artifacts with respect. They’ve endured a lot to survive into the present. They’ll need our help to make it into the future!