Walden: Thoreau's Concord and Walden Pond

Thoreau writes that he began to occupy his house on the 4th of July, once it was boarded and roofed. He stayed at the pond from 4 July 1845 until 6 September 1847. Today the cabin is gone, but its site, a short way north of the pond, is marked by a series of granite posts. Visitors can also see a replica of the cabin. The state reservation is open year-round for day use, though it does not allow overnight camping.

Location precision: The pin marks Walden Pond; the granite posts of the cabin site lie a short way north of the water.

Visitor guidance: Walden Pond State Reservation is open year-round for day use; no overnight camping.

In the chapter Sounds, Thoreau notes that the Fitchburg Railroad touches the pond about a hundred rods south of where he lives. He usually goes to the village along its causeway, and says he is related to society by this link. The Fitchburg Line of the MBTA Commuter Rail still passes west of the pond.

Location precision: The book gives the railroad's distance from the cabin, not a single spot; no map pin is set.

Thoreau says he went to the village one afternoon to fetch a mended shoe and was seized and put into jail. He had not paid a tax to the state. He was released the next day, got his shoe and went back to the woods. Outside the book, the arrest is dated to 24 or 25 July 1846, when the tax collector Sam Staples met him, and he spent a night in jail.

Location precision: The pin marks the centre of Concord; this route does not locate the jail itself.

Released from jail, Thoreau says he returned to the woods in time to get his dinner of huckleberries on Fair-Haven Hill. The hill is a berry-picking spot for him: elsewhere in the same chapter he makes his supper of huckleberries and blueberries there and lays up a store for several days.

Location precision: The book names the hill but not an exact spot; no map pin is set.

In The Ponds, Thoreau describes Flint's, or Sandy Pond, in Lincoln as the greatest lake and inland sea of the district, about a mile east of Walden. He is annoyed at its name and writes: "Such is the poverty of our nomenclature." The pond is still in Lincoln and is now the town's major water supply.

In the chapter named for the farm, Thoreau sets out one afternoon to go a-fishing to Fair-Haven, through the woods, to eke out his scanty fare of vegetables. His way leads through Pleasant Meadow, an adjunct of the Baker Farm. The chapter opens with other rambles, to pine groves standing like temples.

Location precision: The book names the farm but gives no address; the pin is a map search match for Baker Farm in Lincoln.

In Former Inhabitants, Thoreau recalls Brister Freeman. On Brister's Hill lived Brister, once the slave of Squire Cummings. Thoreau notes that the apple trees Brister planted and tended still grow there, large and old, with wild and ciderish fruit. He also tells of reading Brister's epitaph in the old Lincoln burying-ground.

Location precision: The book places the hill near the road to the village; the pin is a map search match, not a surveyed site.