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The Boiling Spring
The Boiling Spring at Bear Garden Hill was Concord’s coldest and most popular spring from colonial days and a literary symbol for the Transcendentalists. It was so named because it bubbled as it oozed from the earth.
Thoreau considered the Boiling Spring one of the wonders of Walden Woods. "There are few really cold springs," he reflected in his Journal, "I go out of my way to go by the Boiling Spring.”
In 1844, water rights to the Boiling Spring were sold to supply the Concord depot with water for the Fitchburg railroad.
Preservation
Because of its literary significance and proximity to Bear Garden Hill, the Boiling Spring property was purchased by the Walden Woods Project. This property, the Bear Garden Hill, and Farm at Walden Woods, all combine as a block of nearly 60 acres.
Recreation
Boiling Spring has a few walking trails that connect to the Farm, Bear Garden Hill, Town of Concord well head property and other conservation land. Passive recreation trails can be enjoyed on this property.
©Scot Miller
"I think that each town should have a park, or rather a primitive forest, of five hundred or a thousand acres, either in one body or several, where a stick should never be cut for fuel, nor for the navy, nor to make wagons, but stand and decay for higher uses —a common possession forever, for instruction and recreation. All Walden Wood might have been reserved, with Walden in the midst of It. . ."
Wild Fruits
