Thoreau Country: Location Note

Flint's (or Sandy) Pond (Lincoln, Mass.)

Flint's Pond is a mile east of Walden Pond, hidden behind Pine Hill. Thoreau's roommate at Harvard College had a boyhood cabin on Flint's Pond, on a knoll at the top of the photo below. Thoreau is said to have spent a summer vacation there. He later sought permission from Farmer Flint to build his own cabin on Flint's Pond but was rebuffed. So Thoreau built at Walden Pond instead. But for the turn-down, could Walden have been named Flint's, do you suppose?
 

[Caption: Now, recreation use of the pond and shore is banned to protect drinking water. But in 1646, diverse Indian sachems had declared to the English their interest in establishing a village in the chestnut grove on the east shore, so they could coexist as Christians with the English in Concord. It never happened. In the 1800s, as many as ten couples would enjoy gala events on the pond in a calico-curtained boat. Above the pond (at left) is the Decordova Museum and its outdoor sculpture garden, probably on "Three Friends' Hill," named at the time for Emerson, Channing, and Thoreau. ]

Flint's Pond borders Walden Woods and was a frequent walking destination of Thoreau and his friends:

Thoreau's Journal, September 12, 1851: "To the Three Friends Hill beyond Flint's Pond...I go to Flint's Pond for the sake of the mountain view from the hill beyond, looking over Concord... It is worth the while to see the mountains in the horizon once a day. I have thus seen some earth which corresponds to my least earthly and trivial, to my most heavenward-looking thoughts...I wish to see the earth through the medium of much air or heaven, for there is no paint like the air. Mountains thus seen are worthy of worship. I go to Flint's Pond also to see a rippling lake... A man should feed his senses with the best that the land affords."

[Caption: Tiny "Brushy Island" in Flint's Pond. (Photo by Brad Dean, 1999.)
 

Thoreau then added a sentiment that makes my toes curl with envy, for swimming is now banned:

"I had already bathed in Walden as I passed, but now I forgot that I had been wetted, and wanted to embrace and mingle myself with the water of Flint's Pond this warm afternoon, to get wet inwardly and deeply."

Almost all of the watershed and the shoreline of Flint's Pond is publicly owned. Trails circumnavigate it but are well set back from the no-go edge, limiting Thoreau's views severely. Flint's size (157 acres) is about 2.5 times that of Walden's 61.7 acres, but it is only about one third as deep as Walden's 102 feet. Because of its numerous coves, Flint's Pond is more cryptic, and its shoreline topography is more varied. Though it appears to be one body of water, there are actually six additional small adjacent wetlands, increasing its biodiversity. Because human use is very limited and because the area serves as a wildlife corridor, the Flint's Pond area is useful for wildlife. Hermit Thrush, Wood Thrush, Veery, and Goshawks breed in the woods; mink, fisher, coyote, and otter roam; and migrating waterfowl come spring and fall, e.g., Common and Red-throated Loon; Horned, Pied-Billed, and Red-Necked Grebes; Common and Hooded Merganser; Green-winged Teal; Wood, Ruddy, and Black Duck; Pintail, Goldeneye, Widgeon, and Redhead; and even Old Squaw and Surf and White-Winged Scoter. Lincoln publishes a trail map and "A Guide to Conservation Lands in Lincoln" that help saunterers.

[Caption: Flint's Pond looking west. DeCordova Art Museum and School is in foreground. Walden Pond is in mid-distance on the right. Pine Hill is between Flint's Pond and Walden. The open fields of Baker Bridge Road are at the left. These are owned by the town of Lincoln as conservation land and is leased to a community garden educational project that works in cooperation with inner city students and markets. Photo by Eric Shambroom (c.1984 DeCordova Museum).

 [Prepared by S. Ells, 2/2002.
See, <http://homepage.mac.com/sfe/henry/index.html>.]