A former hermit in New Hampshire whose cabin in the woods burned down after nearly three decades on the property that he was ordered to leave has been charged with trespassing there once again, turning a shed that survived the fire into a makeshift home outfitted with a wood stove.
There had been an outpouring of support for David Lidstone, 81 — better known as “River Dave” — since he was arrested in July last year and accused of squatting on property owned by a Vermont man.
His cabin burned down in August while he was jailed.
Photo: AP
Lidstone was a local celebrity to boaters and kayakers on the Merrimack River before his property dispute caught the attention of the masses, bringing in more than US$200,000 in donations to help him start a new, law-abiding life.
Lidstone, who was grateful for the support, had secured temporary housing as he figured out where to live next and believed that he could not go back to being a hermit.
However, he returned to the site in Canterbury in late November, turning the shed into a home.
He was arrested on a trespassing charge on Dec. 14 and faces a court hearing in March.
“Sometimes, you have to stand up for what is right,” Lidstone told reporters in a telephone interview from the site on Tuesday. “I’m 81, I’ve got nothing to lose.”
Lidstone is a logger by trade who chopped his firewood and grew his food in the woods along the river.
The property, undeveloped and mostly used for timber harvests, has been owned by the same family since 1963.
Lidstone had claimed that years ago, the current owner’s father gave his word — but nothing in writing — allowing him to live there.
In the summer, he was jailed on a civil contempt sanction and was told that he would be released if he agreed to leave the cabin following a property dispute that goes back to 2016.
The landowner, 86-year-old Leonard Giles, of South Burlington, Vermont, wanted Lidstone off the property.
“We’ll let the court address it,” Lisa Wade, an attorney for Giles, said on Tuesday of Lidstone’s arrest.
In the summer, both sides agreed to arrange for Lidstone to collect his cats, chickens and possessions at the site.
Lidstone also was given permission to hire a surveyor to give him “peace of mind,” Judge Andrew Schulman said.
As of Tuesday, Lidstone said he was unable to get someone to come out to survey the land yet.
A fire destroyed the cabin on Aug. 4, hours after Lidstone defended himself during a court hearing.
He was released from jail the next day after the judge ruled that he would have less incentive to return to “this particular place in the woods,” now that the cabin had burned down.
Canterbury Fire Chief Michael Gamache said that the fire was caused by accident.
He said a representative of Giles who was starting to demolish the cabin on Aug. 4 disabled solar panels, which still had electrical charge in them.
He also used a power saw to cut into metal supports that held the panels onto the roof.
Either action could have created sparks to start making things smoke.
“What can I say, Dave is where he is happiest the most,” Jodie Gedeon, a kayaker who has known Lidstone for years, wrote on Facebook. “He loves to be in nature and what you’d call a free bird... We are still planning to build or purchase a home in the spring.”
FAKE NEWS? ‘When the government demands the press become a state mouthpiece under the threat of punishment, something has gone very wrong,’ a civic group said The top US broadcast regulator on Saturday threatened media outlets over negative coverage of the Middle East war, after US President Donald Trump slammed critical headlines from the “Fake News Media.” The US president since his first term has derided mainstream media as “fake news” and has sued major outlets over what he sees as unfair coverage. Brendan Carr, head of the US Federal Communications Commission — which oversees the nation’s radio, television and Internet media — said broadcasters risked losing their licenses over news coverage. “The law is clear. Broadcasters must operate in the public interest, and they will
INFLUTENTIAL THEORIST: Habermas was particularly critical of the ‘limited interest’ shown by German politicians in ‘shaping a politically effective Europe Jurgen Habermas, whose work on communication, rationality and sociology made him one of the world’s most influential philosophers and a key intellectual figure in his native Germany, has died. He was 96. Habermas’ publisher, Suhrkamp, said he died on Saturday in Starnberg, near Munich. Habermas frequently weighed in on political matters over several decades. His extensive writing crossed the boundaries of academic and philosophical disciplines, providing a vision of modern society and social interaction. His best-known works included the two-volume Theory of Communicative Action. Habermas, who was 15 at the time of Nazi Germany’s defeat, later recalled the dawn of
The Chinese public maintains relatively warm sentiments toward Taiwan and strongly prefers non-military paths to improving cross-strait relations, a recent survey conducted by the Atlanta, Georgia-based Carter Center and Emory University showed. The “China Pulse” research project, which polled 2,506 adults between Oct. 27 last year and Jan. 1 this year, found that 86 percent of respondents support strengthening cultural ties, while 81 percent favor deepening economic interaction. The report, co-authored by political scientists at Emory University and advisors at the Carter Center, indicates that the Chinese public views Taiwan’s importance through a lens of shared history and culture rather than geopolitical
Cannabis-based medicines have shown little evidence of effectiveness for treating most mental health and substance-use disorders, according to a large review of past studies published in a major medical journal on Monday. Medical use of cannabinoids has been expanding, including in the US, Canada and Australia, where many patients report using cannabis products to manage conditions such as anxiety, post-traumatic stress disorder and sleep problems. Researchers reviewed data from 54 randomized clinical trials conducted between 1980 and May last year involving 2,477 participants for their analysis published in The Lancet. The studies assessed cannabinoids as a primary treatment for mental disorders or substance-use
RSS