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Brister’s Hill is a few hundred feet from Walden Pond, and was one of Henry David Thoreau’s study sites later in his life. In the late 1980s, a large commercial development was proposed on Brister’s Hill that was such a significant threat that the National Trust for Historic Preservation twice listed Walden Woods as one of America’s Eleven Most Endangered Historic Places. This threat, as well as another proposed development at Bear Garden Hill, spurred the foundation of the Walden Woods Project.
Thoreau's Path on Brister's Hill is organized around the five principal contributions of Henry David Thoreau:
Conservationist, Abolitionist, Teacher, Scientist, and Social Reformer
Thoreau's own words are incised in granite and cast in bronze to help interpret the landscape and illustrate the powerful observations and insights Thoreau contributed.
©Robert Benson
"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
