|
On the north side of Walden Pond there
are two rectangular stone lined pits commonly know as the Wolf Pits.
The pits lie on level ground near the intersection of Ox Pasture Road and
the Valley Trail. They are two feet wide and five feet long. The
first is seven feet deep, the second nearly five and they lie about twenty
feet apart. Remnants of an iron railing stand next to the pits.
This railing was not part of the original construction but was installed by
the Park Commission in the late 1800’s.
There has been considerable debate as
to the original function of the pits. If we are to believe they are
wolf traps then some questions must be answered. Were there ever
wolves in Lynn Woods and was there any need to go to the trouble of building
elaborate traps to catch them? Are they really traps or are they
actually the remains of some other structure? Was trapping with pits a
commonly used method of wolf killing, or do we need to believe that this
practice was unique to Lynn?
The Lynn Woods was used as common
grazing land until 1706 when it was partitioned and turned over to private
ownership. Prior to this time, anyone living in Lynn had the right to
graze his animals on this common land. The stonewalls that still cross
the woods today are remnants of this practice, they weren't intended to mark
property lines but were constructed to divide the land into different
pastures for different types of animals. Nahant was for sheep, horses
grazed in what is now Pine Grove Cemetery, cattle in the Middle Pasture
(most of Lynn Woods) and Oxen in the area still referred to as the Ox
Pasture. Wolves were a serious threat to livestock. A stone wall
was built across the Nahant Causeway to protect the sheep and, beginning in
1630, bounties were paid to anyone who killed a wolf. In 1645 the
Massachusetts General Court decreed "any person, either English or Indian,
that shall kill any wolf or wolves, within ten miles of the Plantation of
this jurisdiction, shall have for every wolf by him or them so killed ten
shillings, paid out of the Treasury of the Country." By the middle of
the eighteenth century the bounty system had been replaced by general wolf
hunting days when the citizens of Lynn would gather together for a thorough
sweep of the woods in an attempt to rid them of this menace.
Are the pits seventeenth century wolf
traps? Skeptics have suggested many other explanations for the origin
and use of the pits. One of the most believable is that they were
sawpits. Before the invention of the circular saw timbers were cut buy
two men working a large straight saw. One cut from the top and the
other beneath. Logs could have been rolled over the pits and cut
without needing to be lifted onto a frame. A visit to the pits makes
it quickly evident that they are just too small for this purpose. Even
a child would have a hard time working the lower end of the saw without
constantly bumping the walls with his elbows. A second suggestion was
that they were latrines for some long forgotten Boy Scout camp or for
workers clearing the bottom of the Walden Pond reservoir. It is a
little hard to believe that anyone would go to the trouble to carefully
construct stone walls for a latrine; especially for a Boy Scout camp and the
pits are simply too far from the reservoir to have been intended for workers
clearing the bottom. A third theory is that they were pits used for
storage of food much like a root cellar. If this were the case then
where is the foundation of the house? No record exists of there ever
being a dwelling in this area and no physical evidence has ever been
located.
There are numerous examples from
Europe and North America of traps being used to kill wolves. One early
method in Germany was to construct a dense hedge from plants and plant
debris with a few select holes in it. Snares were placed in the holes
and the wolves where chased through them. This was not too effective
because the wolves quickly learned to avoid the hedges. The next
method was to dig a wolf pit. A hole was dug and covered with branches
then baited with meat. The bottom of the pit was fitted with iron
spikes and when the unfortunate wolf went for the bait he fell and was
impaled on the stakes. Wolf pits in Norway were round with ropes
stretched across to hold the brush cover. Scottish wolf pits were made
exactly like those in Lynn Woods and were so effective that they are
credited with eliminating the wolf in Scotland. Wood lined wolf pits
were constructed on a farm in Fairfax County Virginia. An animal
carcass was drug for a mile or so through the woods to create a scent trail
leading to the pit. A wooden plank was balanced over the pit and
baited. When the wolf went for the bait the plank and the wolf would
fall into the pit. The farm became known as the Wolf Trap Farm and is
the present site of the Wolf Trap National Park for the Performing Arts.
Locally there were other examples of wolf pits. One was reported to be
in Andover but was unfortunately destroyed during road construction.
Two others are in the Lynn Woods but they are covered by the water in
Breed’s Pond.
The historical record clearly shows
that killing wolves was a high priority for Lynn’s early settlers. Wolf Pits
of various designs were the preferred method of wolf killing during the
seventeenth century in Europe and North America and many had a design
similar to those in Lynn Woods. This evidence strongly suggests that the
pits are indeed wolf traps. If you would like to make your own
investigation you should begin your hike at the Great Woods parking lot.
Take the road to the right of Walden Pond. This is Ox Pasture Road
which is marked with orange blazes. Follow this road for about 1¼
miles until you reach intersection D3-3. Turn right onto the blue
blazed trail and immediately look for an unmarked footpath exiting to your
left. A short walk down this path will reveal the wolf pits on your
right.
By: Dan Small - Lynn Woods
Park Ranger
Date Posted: 08/31/2007 |
