Walden Pond is a 102 foot- (31 metre)-deep lake in Concord, Massachusetts in the United States. It is 61 acres (250,000 m2) in area and 1.7 miles (2.7 km) around. 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 northern shore 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 pond famous. The land at that end was owned by Thoreau's friend and mentor, Ralph Waldo Emerson, who let Thoreau use it for his experiment. 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.
Read more about Walden Pond: History, Preservation, Influences, Transportation, Gallery
Famous quotes related to walden pond:
“When I wrote the following pages, or rather the bulk of them, I lived alone, in the woods, a mile from any neighbor, in a house which I had built myself, on the shore of Walden Pond, in Concord, Massachusetts, and earned my living by the labor of my hands only. I lived there two years and two months. At present I am a sojourner in civilized life again.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)
“He suggested that there might be men of genius in the lowest grades of life, however permanently humble and illiterate, who take their own view always, or do not pretend to see at all; who are as bottomless even as Walden Pond was thought to be, though they may be dark and muddy.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)