Walking to Wachusett
Concord to Wachusett with Henry David Thoreau
Join Leominster resident Bob Young for a lively re-enactment of the journey taken by Concord native Henry David Thoreau and described in his essay "A Walk to Wachusett." Thoreau’s walk was taken on July 19, 1842. Beginning in Concord, he and companion Richard Fuller walked to Mt. Wachusett.
Bob and his wife Kathy have resided in Leominster for the past 17 years. While researching a trip to Mount Katahdin in Maine (also visited by Thoreau), Bob came across the Wachusett essay and decided to study it further. It was Kathy who suggested walking the route in order to capture in observations and photographs his thoughts and feelings about the historic, but little known journey.
To experience Thoreau’s trip, Young first researched and then walked the exact route taken by Thoreau. Re-enacting the journey consisted of a three-day excursion in 2005 through the towns of Concord, Acton, Stow, Bolton, Lancaster, Sterling, West Sterling, East Princeton and Princeton. Young’s walk is the first recorded re-enactment of Thoreau’s journey.
The presentation will provide background information followed by a series of pictures and explanations of what he found and learned along the route.
At the end of the presentation, there will be time for questions. Also copies of Bob’s new book, which describes his adventure, Walking to Wachusett, will be available for sale and signing.
Highlights:
- Learn of the mystery of the heavy tent which Thoreau and Fuller took turns in carrying along the route.
- Discover how one of Princeton’s citizens, Charles Theodore Russell, had a significant impact on Thoreau’s essay.
- Have you taken an early morning trip to the summit to watch “the sun rise up out of the sea?” See exactly what Thoreau saw 157 years ago. Yes, we can still see it today.
- What did Thoreau find at the summit? Blueberries? Observation House? An early forerunner of the Summit House(s)? What did Thoreau and Fuller do during their short visit to the summit? Learn how you can experience the same thing today.
- Were the planets Saturn and Jupiter, along with the Moon, really aligned as described by Thoreau?
- From the base of the mountain, what route did Thoreau and Fuller take to reach the summit? Mountain House Trail? Old Indian Trail? The Up-Summit Road?
- Having passed through Sterling, where did they rest at night in “the western part of the town where a small village collected?”
