(When we left off the story, Thoreau's hut had been moved to the Brooks Clark Farm on the Old Carlisle Road (Estabrook Road) by James and Daniel Clark....)

What happened to Henry David Thoreau's hut next in this story gives some Walden fans nightmares. Some may become outraged that this icon was not treated with the respect they believe it was due. Surely dogged preservation was the form of reverence most worthy for it?

But if the reader thinks about who Thoreau was and how he lived his life, it may be more clear that he himself might have found such sentimentality about the hut to be quite contrary to his values. And, given his strong practical qualities, it is probable he would have approved of its continued usefulness.

The hut was probably shifted several times around Brooks Clark Farm as its uses changed and its presence was needed at new locations. First, it was used for a time to store grain -- probably corn.

Later, it was likely left in the northwest pasture of the farm as a memorial to Thoreau until 1867. Perhaps it was then that the cannibalizing for parts began in earnest, for certainly the conflicts between sources increase expodentially.

Ellery Channing noted the windows were already gone when he visited in 1863. In 1868, the roof was removed and used whole to cover a pig yard. In that same year, Ellery Channing wrote he saw the hut in ruins, the structure just having been pulled down. Yet, in 1876, it was idenfitifed as standing. It is reported to have been reconstructed, receiving a new roof and was then used for a stable. The floor and some timbers were also reported to have been used to make a shed on the side of the barn around 1885. Eventually, the shed collapsed and the wood was used to repair the barn itself. The front door was used over time in a variety of spots.

Most sources agree that the boards somehow were used in barn repair on the Brooks Clark Farm. Edward Bacon, however, says the hut was demolished and the boards were used to enlarge the farmhouse. This has not been substantiated by any other source.

In the 1950's, William Griswold examined a barn on the Brooks Clark Farm with boards used for repair work which did not match the rest of the others. But he points out these do not seem to answer to the description Thoreau gives to the ones in his hut.

Oral tradition remains clear that the barn and its boards are still on a former Clark farm on Estabrook Road. The owner of the property where "everyone" says the barn resides took down a small barn on the place in recent years, saving the boards for a buyer who never went through with the deal. However, the address of this barn is NOT the Brooks Clark Farm, but one down the road and it was owned by a related -- but different -- Clark. A group of us examined this wood, but no enlightenment could be gained.

How the idea came to be that the barn with the Walden boards was on this other property is impossible to say. There are no records of there having been a barn-moving, but that is not to say it could not have happened. Could people have started confusing the two properties at one time and this continued until it became a widely-accepted myth? Or did the Clarks lend spare boards to one another as the need for them arose?

Concordian Marion Wheeler took me to the spot where the barn containing the timbers of the hut last stood. She was shown this by the late Gladys Clark -- a member of the Clark family which brought the hut to the farm -- about a dozen years ago. The location was at the Brooks Clark farm, on the edge of the Estabrook Woods, which agrees with the written documentation available.

It is unlikely we can follow the trail any further. Indeed, following it this far has proven to be a bit of a bumpy and uncertain trip.