BY KATHI ANDERSON
“My thoughts expand and flourish most on this barren hill, where in the twilight I see the moss spreading in rings and prevailing over the short, thin grass, carpeting the earth, adding a few inches of green to its circle annually while it dies within.” Henry David Thoreau, Journals 11 July 1851
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Discover CONCORD
| Summer 2022
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Thoreau’s evocative words describe Bear Garden Hill in Walden Woods -- a place he loved for its beauty, tranquility, and transcendence. In his Journals, Thoreau chronicled his frequent moonlight walks at Bear Garden Hill and at nearby Fairhaven Hill. Although not as well-known as some of the other conservation sites in Concord, Bear Garden Hill remains a popular destination for local and out-of-town Thoreau enthusiasts, walkers, runners, and those pursuing other forms of passive recreation, including snowshoeing, cross country skiing, and horseback riding. Some are unaware that Bear Garden Hill nearly met its demise from high density development in the late 1980s. The impending threat to Bear Garden Hill, coupled with a proposed 147,000 square foot office building at Brister’s Hill (very close to Walden Pond), prompted the founding of The Walden Woods Project (walden.org) in 1990. For the past 32 years, our nonprofit organization has preserved and protected the iconic landscapes of Walden Woods in recognition of their worldwide literary, historical, and environmental significance, and their capacity to motivate others to identify, study, and protect the “Waldens” that exist in their own communities.
Thoreau’s writings and the landscape that influenced him are highly relevant to critical environmental and social reform challenges of our time. In 1991, Bear Garden Hill became the first site in Walden Woods acquired by our organization. We now protect and steward nearly 200 acres in and around Thoreau’s Walden Woods, including the 18-acre Walden Woods Project Farm adjacent to Bear Garden Hill. Plans are underway to provide public access to Bear Garden Hill from our organic farm via a short connector trail. The trail will run near picturesque agricultural fields, across a small brook, and over to an existing loop trail on Bear Garden
All photos courtesy of The Walden Woods Project
Bear Garden Hill Trail In Walden Woods
