Walden Pond - Concord MA
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nomadwillie
N 42° 26.361 W 071° 20.010
19T E 308075 N 4701196
Walden Pond is a 31 m (102 ft) deep lake. It is 61 acres (250,000 m2) in area and 1.7 miles (2.7 km) around, located in Concord, Massachusetts, in the United States
Waymark Code: WMBHGC
Location: Massachusetts, United States
Date Posted: 05/23/2011
Views: 6
A famous example of a kettle hole, it was formed by retreating glaciers 10,000–12,000 years ago.
The writer, transcendentalist, and philosopher Henry David Thoreau lived on the shores of the pond for two years starting in the summer of 1845. His account of the experience was recorded in Walden; or, Life in the Woods, and made the spot famous. Concord Museum contains the bed, chair, and desk from Thoreau's cabin.
Boston's "Ice King", Frederic Tudor, harvested ice yearly on Walden Pond for export to the Caribbean, Europe, and India. In his journal, Thoreau philosophized upon the wintry sight of Tudor's ice harvesters: "The sweltering inhabitants of Charleston and New Orleans, of Madras and Bombay and Calcutta, drink at my well ... The pure Walden water is mingled with the sacred water of the Ganges."
Now managed by the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, Walden Pond State Reservation is a popular swimming destination in the summer.
In 1961, the Middlesex County Commissioners, then managing the land, proposed leveling a significant portion of the preserve for a parking lot and other "improvements." They had already leveled an acre of woodland for access to the public beach. The Commissioners were sued to stop the destruction of the existing environment. Judge David A. Rose, sitting in the Massachusetts Superior Court, ruled that Walden’s deed donating the property to the Commonwealth required preservation of the land and barred further development.[2] This decision achieved national recognition and Judge Rose received hundreds of letters from school children across the country thanking him for saving the land.
In 1977, the Commonwealth of Massachusetts installed a porous pavement parking area at Walden Pond as a special Technology Transfer demonstration project, following best-practice methodology generated by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency in 1972. The porous pavement still looks good and works well decades later, despite more freeze-thaw cycling than most other parts of the world.[3]
In 1990, Eagles member and solo artist Don Henley initiated The Walden Woods Project to prevent the area around Walden Pond from being developed.
At one point there was an amusement park built on the far end of the pond but it burnt down in 1902 and was never rebuilt.
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