page_title: Fairyland Pond
section_title: History
hierarchical_section_title: Fairyland Pond / History
caption_attribution_description: Brister's Spring near Fairyland Pond, Concord, MA. Taken in April 2012 by Charles Jennings and released into the public domain
context_page_description: Fairyland Pond is a pond within Hapgood Wright Town Forest, a conservation area in Concord, Massachusetts. It is a popular recreation area, notable for its old-growth forest and its association with many literary figures from Concord’s past.
context_section_description: The area is mentioned in the writings of Ralph Waldo Emerson, Henry David Thoreau and their contemporaries.  The name ‘Fairyland’ probably dates to the 1850s and is attributed to Emerson’s children and their companions, including Louisa May Alcott, who lived nearby and often played there.
  
  The Fairyland Pond as it appears today is artificial, having been created in the late 19th century when a dam was constructed.  The dam’s drainage culvert was rebuilt in 2011.  The inflow to the pond originates about 500 feet to the south at Brister’s Spring, named for Brister Freeman (mistakenly identified by Henry David Thoreau as ‘Scipio’ or ‘Sippio’ Brister), a freed slave who lived with his family on the small hill from which the spring emerges.  The location of Brister’s house is now marked as part of the Drinking Gourd Project, which commemorates Concord’s role in the abolitionist movement.  The site was considered significant by Emerson, who would sometimes bring visitors to drink a glass of water from the spring.
caption: Brister's Spring near Fairyland Pond