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"The centerpiece of the Hapgood Wright Forest is Fairyland Pond, a low-lying area filled with swampy vegetation that was dammed in the late 1800s to form the pond. Henry David Thoreau referred to the hollow as “Hubbard‟s Close” or “Hubbard‟s shady swamp”, named for its owner Ebenezer Hubbard. The swamp was part of the uninterrupted woodland surrounding Walden Pond where he led the Alcott girls and Emerson children on berry-picking trips, fancifully calling it “fairyland”, the likely origin of the name given to the area by the town‟s people. Fairyland Pond as it appears today is a 2.75 acre shallow pond held by a dam.
A visit to the pond is a quiet retreat from the noise of highway traffic above Brister‟s Hill. Cattails grow along the pond‟s marshy southern shore and pond lilies float along its long shallow surface. The pond is rimmed with sweet pepperbush, high- bush blueberry and grey alder, with a surrounding forest of red oak, pine, hemlock, yellow birch, American Chestnut saplings and dogwood. All contribute to an ongoing pageant of seasonal color and bloom mirrored in the water. When winter sets in the ice covered pond and snow-covered landscape reflect winter‟s light with particular beauty."
Hapgood Wright Town Forest Trail Guide
Concord, Massachusetts
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The United States is one of the most diverse countries on earth, jam packed full of amazing sights from St. Patrick's cathedral in New York to Mount Hollywood California.The Northeast region is where it all started. Thirteen British colonies fought the American Revolution from here and won their independence in the first successful colonial rebellion in history. Take a look at these rolling hills carpeted with foliage along the Hudson river here, north of New York City.The American south is known for its polite people and slow pace of life. Probably they move slowly because it's so hot. Southerners tend not to trust people from "up north" because they talk too fast. Here's a cemetery in Georgia where you can find graves of soldiers from the Civil War.The West Coast is sort of like another country that exists to make the east coast jealous. California is full of nothing but grizzly old miners digging for gold, a few gangster rappers, and then actors. That is to say, the West Coast functions as the imagination of the US, like a weird little brother who teases everybody then gets famous for making freaky art.The central part of the country is flat farmland all the way over to the Rocky Mountains. Up in the northwest corner you can find creative people in places like Portland and Seattle, along with awesome snowboarding and good beer. Text by Steve Smith.
