sign in sign up
<<
Home , Forest, Walden Woods Project, Walking (Thoreau)

The Conservation Town of Concord A walk in the Hapgood Wright Town Forest can be a peaceful experience exploring its many natural features, a world apart from the busy roads just above the ridge. This guide describes these features as well as cultural and historical points of interest. Its environs Hapgood Wright witnessed the of freed slaves who settled here struggling to farm its infertile . Henry Town Forest David Thoreau, Ralph Waldo Emerson, and the Alcott and Emerson children were Trail Guide frequent visitors. Thanks to Thoreau’s written observations, we have a mid-1800s snapshot of the natural features and lives of the people who lived here, broadening our understanding of what we see today. Trail Development In 2008, Hapgood Wright Town Forest was chosen to be the first Concord conservation land to use the new trail blaze system. A 2013 trail addition was the Emerson-Thoreau Amble, connecting Heywood Meadow in Concord Center to Thoreau’s cabin at Pond. The Bay Circuit Trail was enhanced by relocating it off Cambridge Turnpike onto the Fairyland Pond Amble. The Harry Beyer Assessed Trail loop was added in 2013 from the small handicap parking lot through the Brister’s Hill area. Location and Access Access with parking for more than 20 vehicles is provided on the east side of Walden Street across from the entrance to Concord-Carlisle High School. Walden Street intersects MA Route 2 across from MA Route 126. An information kiosk and sign “Hapgood Wright Town Forest” identifies the site. Additional handicap parking is available approximately 2,000 feet towards MA Route 2, at the Assessed Trail entrance.

Tel:

Prepared by the Division of Natural , 2021.

Hapgood Wright Town Forest

Suggested Walks Hapgood Wright Town Forest Points of Brister’s Hill and Forest Topography Interest The Hapgood Wright Town Forest has Fairyland Pond Circuit - From the sculpted features that reveal its glacial parking lot follow the left side of the fork Consult the Hapgood Wright Town Forest Trail origin. Brister’s Hill is a glacial kame on the yellow-blazed main Fairyland Pond Map for locations of these interesting features formed of sand and gravel deposits that Trail, passing the Hapgood Wright listed here in alphabetic order. have long been exposed by gravel monument and continuing clockwise that once took place here. around the pond and back to the parking Brister Freeman Homesite lot. time: 20 minutes. On the red-blazed trail along Walden Street, a Brister’s Spring stone marker was placed by The Drinking In a shallow ravine beside the red-blazed Brister Freeman extended loop – Follow Gourd Project in 2011 to identify the trail that winds up to Brister’s Hill, the Fairyland Pond Circuit but turn left at approximate site of Brister Freeman’s late 1700s bubbles from underground. A post the red-blazed secondary trail on the south home. Brister Freeman was enslaved for 25 identifies it as Brister’s Spring, named for side of the pond that climbs a hill passing years to a wealthy landholder and doctor in the freed slave who once lived nearby. Brister’s Spring. Turn right at the “T” Concord. On gaining his freedom after the junction with Tuttle Lane then right on the Revolutionary War, he enlisted in the Thoreau mentioned in his writings that red-blazed secondary trail to the Brister Continental Army, became the second freed this spring was a reliable source of cool Freeman Homesite and back to the parking slave in Concord to purchase land, worked as a , and he recorded its lot. Walking time: 30 minutes. day laborer, and raised a family. temperature as 49°F. Brister’s Hill Loop – From the parking Although Brister’s time here was earlier than “Commonly I lot follow the red-blazed secondary trail Thoreau’s writings, (he died in 1822) Thoreau rested an hour or along Walden Street toward MA Route 2, considered his cabin to be in Brister’s two in the at past the handicap parking lot to the “neighborhood”. “Down the road, on the right noon, after Brister’s Hill marker and chained gate. hand, on Brister’s Hill, lived Brister Freeman, ‘a planting, and ate Turn left into the Walden handy negro’, slave of Squire Cummings… my lunch, and Interpretive Site to reach the “” With him dwelt Fenda, his hospitable wife, who read a little by a stone marker. From there follow the right told fortunes….” spring which side of the fork to an arrow pointing left to was the source of the Reflection Circle. From there continue a and of a on the path to the ecological “Succession” brook, oozing from stone marker. Turn left onto the blue- under Brister’s Hill, blazed trail and again left onto the Tuttle half a mile from my Lane (yellow-blazed trail). Turn right on field.” the red-blazed trail toward Fairyland Pond The spring bubbles out into a verdant then left at the Pond back to the main water course lush with , watercress parking lot. Walking time 40 to 60 and skunk cabbage. During cool, damp minutes. and snow-covered days of winter, this Harry Beyer Assessed Trail – From the place can seem magical, with mist rising small handicap parking lot on Walden up from the warmer spring-fed hollow. In Street follow the route for handicap access Brister Freeman Homesite Marker the early spring blossoms of skunk displayed on the kiosk map. cabbage and sunny yellow marsh- marigold are a main feature of the site. Swamp and Old Growth seasonal color and bloom mirrored in the Hill and the construction of the trails and The main yellow-blazed trail from the water. When winter sets in the covered markers found here today. northeast corner of Fairyland Pond to pond and snow-covered reflect Cambridge Turnpike was known to Thoreau winter’s light with particular beauty. Walden Woods Interpretive Site – Thoreau’s as “Hubbard’s Path”. He named the Path on Brister’s Hill area’s marshy land Clintonia Swamp for the Hapgood Wright Monument A chained gate off Walden Street marks the wildflowers that were once abundant here. At a trail junction near the outflow of entry point of the Walden Woods Interpretive The path skirts the base of Brister’s Hill Fairyland Pond, a stone monument recognizes Site. From here a trail circles the top of Brister’s passing below a hemlock grove with yellow Hapgood Wright who provided funds for the Hill where ground-mounted plaques, inscribed birch . Fairyland Pond is the source of town to purchase the original 78-acre parcel with Thoreau’s insights, lead the walker through the water that flows beside this trail, that bears his name. Wright made the gift on sections devoted to different aspects of his eventually joining with the Mill Brook near the occasion of Concord’s 250th anniversary, contributions to society. A meadow is devoted Cambridge Turnpike. September 12, 1885. His gift of $1,000 was to to Thoreau as conservationist, the site of Brister be invested for fifty years, after which it could Freeman’s apple honors him as social Halfway between the pond and the turnpike, be spent for the improvement of the town. In reformer, emphasizes his teaching, on the west side of the trail, grows one of the 1935, Concord used the funds to purchase the forest succession woods illustrates his pioneering oldest and largest white in Concord. 78-acre Fairyland parcel, deemed “the most ecological science, and a Reflection Circle Measuring 50 inches in diameter, it has all of beautiful place in town”, and set this celebrates his gift of philosophy and writing. the characteristics of an old growth , and monument at the pond in appreciation of may have been of good size even in Wright’s gift. It was Concord’s first ’s Reflection Circle Emerson’s and Thoreau’s time. acquisition of conservation land, and with The centerpiece of the Walden Woods Project is Fairyland Pond subsequent additions, became its largest at 181 a circle of large cut granite blocks that invites The centerpiece of the Hapgood Wright contiguous acres. walkers in for rest and reflection. Each stone Forest is Fairyland Pond, a low-lying area block is inscribed with quotations of thinkers and filled with swampy that was Brister’s Hill Walden Woods Project leaders whose words echo or build upon dammed in the late 1800s to form the pond. Interpretive Site Thoreau’s - Ralph Waldo Emerson, Emily referred to the hollow Walden Woods Project Land Dickinson, John Muir, Mohandas K. Gandhi, as “Hubbard’s Close” or “Hubbard’s shady In the 1970s and 1980s, Brister’s Hill was Aldo Leopold, Chief Standing Bear, Rachel swamp”, named for its owner Ebenezer threatened by plans for development of a Carson, John F. Kennedy, Wendell Berry, Hubbard. The swamp was part of the highway interchange and a large office park. Martin Luther King, and Edward O. Wilson. uninterrupted surrounding Walden These projects were defeated through legal Pond where he led the Alcott girls and action of the Thoreau Country Conservation Emerson children on berry-picking trips, Alliance and strong opposition from the fancifully calling it “fairyland”, the likely Concord Historical Commission. A origin of the name given to the area by the nationwide campaign was soon begun to save town’s people. Fairyland Pond as it appears Walden Woods. today is a 2.75 acre shallow pond held by a dam. In 1989, , musician and founding A visit to the pond is a quiet retreat from the member of the Eagles music group, responded noise of highway traffic above Brister’s Hill. to the effort by raising funds to purchase the Cattails grow along the pond’s marshy property and founded the non-profit southern shore and pond lilies float along its organization The Walden Woods Project. In long shallow surface. The pond is rimmed 1998, the Thoreau Institute was established in with sweet pepperbush, high-bush blueberry cooperation with The , to and grey alder, with a surrounding forest of promote research and education regarding Granite Stone Henry David Thoreau. The Walden Woods red oak, pine, hemlock, yellow birch, with Thoreau Quote American Chestnut saplings and dogwood. Project followed with the purchase of Brister’s All contribute to an ongoing pageant of