Have a Seat and Get to the Bottom of Walden's Timbers
By Edward M. Metro
What's that gnarly old wood between Walden Pond and the Visitor Center? Take a break before crossing the busy roadway and learn about live oak and the origin of these ancient timbers.
The benches are made from live oak that was left over in the Charlestown Navy Yard from the mid-19th century. The wood was buried in the early 20th century, forgotten about, and re-discovered in June 2010 when contractors were excavating for the Spaulding Rehabilitation Hospital in the Charlestown, Massachusetts Navy Yard.
Look closely at the tight, braided grain of the Live Oak tree, and you can imagine how this strong wood has survived so many years. The timbers, now at Walden Pond, were brought to the navy yard for projects after the USS Constitution had left. The Walden Pond timbers were not purposely cut for the USS Constitution, nor were they removed from the historic ship. The re-purposed benches at Walden are from the same era as the ship.
Could the wood have been used for Constitution for repairs? Yes, if Constitution had been in Boston in the mid-19th century, but she left Boston in the 1840s and didn't return until 1897.
Mystic Seaport Museum in Connecticut received most of the live and white oak that was dug up at the Charlestown Navy Yard in June 2010. The museum had a few of the white oak pieces age-tested through dendrochronology because live oak is too dense and the grain is too tight to measure a tree's rings. The white oak samples were harvested in Ohio in the 1860's. Many of the timber benches here at Walden were most likely saplings during the American Revolution. To learn more about live oak, read, "Live Oaking: Southern Timber for Tall Ships" by Virginia Steele Wood.
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(Photo and story by Ed Metro)
By Edward M. Metro
What's that gnarly old wood between Walden Pond and the Visitor Center? Take a break before crossing the busy roadway and learn about live oak and the origin of these ancient timbers.
The benches are made from live oak that was left over in the Charlestown Navy Yard from the mid-19th century. The wood was buried in the early 20th century, forgotten about, and re-discovered in June 2010 when contractors were excavating for the Spaulding Rehabilitation Hospital in the Charlestown, Massachusetts Navy Yard.
Look closely at the tight, braided grain of the Live Oak tree, and you can imagine how this strong wood has survived so many years. The timbers, now at Walden Pond, were brought to the navy yard for projects after the USS Constitution had left. The Walden Pond timbers were not purposely cut for the USS Constitution, nor were they removed from the historic ship. The re-purposed benches at Walden are from the same era as the ship.
Could the wood have been used for Constitution for repairs? Yes, if Constitution had been in Boston in the mid-19th century, but she left Boston in the 1840s and didn't return until 1897.
Mystic Seaport Museum in Connecticut received most of the live and white oak that was dug up at the Charlestown Navy Yard in June 2010. The museum had a few of the white oak pieces age-tested through dendrochronology because live oak is too dense and the grain is too tight to measure a tree's rings. The white oak samples were harvested in Ohio in the 1860's. Many of the timber benches here at Walden were most likely saplings during the American Revolution. To learn more about live oak, read, "Live Oaking: Southern Timber for Tall Ships" by Virginia Steele Wood.
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(Photo and story by Ed Metro)
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