Walden

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Exact replica of Thoreau's cabin built near Walden Pond 
but not in the original location. 

"I went to the woods because I wished to live deliberately, to front only the essential facts of life, and see if I could not learn what it had to teach, and not, when I came to die, discover that I had not lived,"  

Henry David Thoreau writes at the beginning of his most famous book Walden, or Life in the Woods.


On this date: July 4, 1845, 166 years ago, Thoreau declared his independence, moving into his cabin near Walden Pond. 


Only 10 feet by 15 feet it was small—more like an out-building you'd store your riding lawnmower in today—built on a recently purchased woodlot owned by Ralph Waldo Emerson. The original cabin was situated on a rise overlooking the pond. It was peaceful except for the sounds of trees being cut for firewood which happened routinely. The small structure behind Henry David's small house was his woodshed.

With me for scale

"He began building his house in March," writes author Robert Sullivan, "He called it a house. His family called it a hut. Emerson called it a hut. [Bronson] Alcott called it a hermitage, Ellery Channing called it a 'wooden inkstand,' on account of how much work Thoreau got done there. Thoreau referred to it variously as a lodge, a hut, an apartment, and a dwelling, but more often than not to him it was a house."


Inside he had a bed, writing desk, three chairs, a kettle, skillet and a frying pan. Initially, Thoreau cooked outside but in time, he added a fireplace, woodstove and brick chimney.


He lived simply with few material possessions, but that was the point. Happiness is found not in what we own, but in how we choose to live our days. 

Exact replica of the Thoreau cabin's interior.

- Photos taken on a recent visit to Walden with Paul James. 

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