LYNN, mass. — Walden Pond, Henry David Thoreau’s idyllic retreat in the woods of Concord, Mass., has long been one of the most famous day trips in New England, drawing droves of visitors seeking the beauty immortalized in the 19th-century philosopher’s writings.
But some 21st-century conveniences — namely Google maps and some GPS devices — have been leading travelers to the wrong Walden: an identically named reservoir, next to a golf course, in this industrial center on Massachusetts’ North Shore.
“I pulled up to that park and felt like I was in a county park — any old local county park,” said A.N. Devers, a writer from Brooklyn who has visited dozens of writers’ houses and was hoping to add one more during a trip to Boston this summer.
Devers had entered the phrase “Walden Pond” into Google and cross-referenced directions on her iPhone.
As in more than a dozen tests on iPhones, Android phones and Google searches, she was pointed here, to a reservoir named for Edwin Walden, the president of this city’s water board in the late 1800s.
“I do think I knew somewhere in the back of my head that Walden was near Concord,” Devers said. But like many wayfarers in a world increasingly reliant on GPS devices, “I just didn’t really process the directions.”
Although the simple phrase “Walden Pond” tends to pull up the Lynn reservoir, additional auto-complete options do show the site in Concord. (MapQuest and Microsoft’s search engine, Bing, first pull up the Concord Walden Pond.)
“It happens all the time,” said Dan Small, the ranger for Lynn Woods, where the reservoir is.
Dick Katin, a ranger at the neighboring golf course, has found himself zooming in his cart to collect misdirected visitors who wander through the fairway. “Which is very dangerous,” he said. “They think they’re on a trail hiking or whatever.”
