Thoreau’s Walden Pond Today
© Moisés Saviñón
At the time I was living in the Sahara, re-reading Walden and thinking to myself, “I’d love to visit that place one day.” Mind you, I was born and raised in New England!
As with many New Englanders who love Walden the book, visiting Walden Pond never tends to materialize over our lifetimes. This is a common phenomenon, and not just with lovers of Walden.
For instance, there’s the House of the Seven Gables, or even an entire neighborhood that has been the victim of intellectual neglect like the east side of Providence (for those who love Lovecraft).
Perhaps all this local indifference is just because New England is so compact, and it could be that there’s a collective feeling that because we already live within our historical sites, why bother? In my case, my lack of local touring hasn’t been just negligent — it’s been egregious, for I’ve gone off to far off lands canoodling with their landmarks instead. But that sort of infidelity is now a thing of the past.
I recently decided to take the trip from Providence to Walden Pond, which took me just an hour by car. Along the way, I felt the excitement surge in my belly as I was finally going to be an eyewitness to so many of Thoreau’s keen observations.
I’m not going to provide a full description of what I saw because Thoreau has done that well enough in his book, but it suffices to say that Walden Pond is worth seeing. I’m not one to take a lot of pictures but the images you see within this article are all mine. The beauty was far too compelling not to click away. And although it’s not in its original state of wilderness as during Thoreau’s time there between 1845 and 1847 (it’s been frequented by thousands if not millions of people), it nonetheless possesses the most beautiful New England colors one could imagine. As Thoreau emphasizes, the water is clear and of a distinct blue; some spots are turquoise.
The trees stand firm and tall under a bed of their own debris undergirded by other detritus taken there by other impulsions of nature. Together, it forms a rustic quilt that almost convinces you some one had placed it there for the sake of your comfort.
There has been some overt human intervention, but a lot of it makes good sense, as in the certain stones that have been planted around the pond to avoid erosion; and they’ve placed metal wire to prevent people from falling from high-up places. In addition, you’ll find various manmade entrances, which look like private alcoves; they’re all around the pond and sparsely paved with rustic stones.
That Thoreau would have disliked the extent to which Walden Pond has become such a tourist attraction is almost certain, but if it wouldn’t have been for his musings Walden Pond would have remained relatively unknown, so he’s to blame — ironically. On the other hand, had it not been for Thoreau’s contribution, the area could have been turned into suburbs or some other unsightly fabrication.
What is certain is that Thoreau put Walden Pond on the map. As I walked the path encircling the giant pond he so made famous, I heard the wondrous chirping of birds coupled with all sorts of languages spoken by humans, some of which sounded like Dutch, Tagalog, Italian, and so on. All a delightful experience, but I’d still like to add a complaint.
My grievance derives from the love I feel for nature and my respect for Thoreau’s constant insistence on simplicity and frugality. First, the amount of money that was being charged to non-Massachusetts license-plate holders for parking was unpardonable. While locals paid a few dollars, my Rhode Island plate forced me to pay $30.00. I suppose I could’ve parked a few miles away and just walk, but I was accompanied by other people and didn’t want to inconvenience them, especially because such a far distance from Walden Pond is not a walkable route, as there seem to be no sidewalks, just a great extent of pavement for motor vehicles.
The other qualm I have is, “Why build the replica of Thoreau’s cabin at the entrance of the tourist attraction when there are some stones along the walking path that show where experts consider his cabin to have been? Marketability I suppose…a few feet away from the replica of his cabin you’ll find a statue of Thoreau’s diminutive figure.
There are more “touristy” things at Walden Pond that caused an aversion within me, like a souvenir shop and so forth. It’s not that I’m saying Thoreau was anti-capitalist, but the emphasis on making money at Walden Pond is incongruent with the breadth of his text.
Indeed, the commercial way in which Walden Pond is being treated today is probably not what Thoreau would have wanted to happen, albeit it very well-maintained and preserved.
What does Walden Pond mean today?
For most people, Walden Pond has become a memorial to Thoreau as an obscure nature-loving environmentalist and transcendentalist. There is no real sense of an intimation to the myriad of universally compelling ideas that are discussed about this wonderful place within his book. But it could be that I’m overromanticizing the whole thing. For the person who just wants to take a dip in the pond with no regard to its intellectual context, then it’s book-related meaning is a moot point.
Walden Pond was donated in 1922 to the Commonwealth of Massachusetts by the Emerson family, years after having been lent to Thoreau by Ralph Waldo Emerson in the mid-9th Century. It’s now officially “Walden Pond State Reservation.”
