This is a very sad story. Even if you have never read Henry David Thoreau's "Walden, or Life in the Woods" chances are you are familiar with the work and with Walden Pond. Thoreau lived in a small shack on the northern shore of the pond. He lived there for two years, two months and two days after being given permission to do so by his friend and mentor Ralph Waldo Emerson. His description of the life on the pond captures the imagination of readers to this very day. The pond, in Massachusetts, has become a major destination for tourists, but as we learn in the following story, it is now endangered because over the decades people have been urinating in the water while swimming. READ THE SAD FACTS ABOUT WALDEN POND HERE