Revisiting the Ledyard Legend

The story of John Ledyard chopping down a tall pine in 1772, hewing out a dugout canoe, and paddling away to roam the "girdled earth" is one of Dartmouth's sturdiest legends.

And the story goes that somewhere around 1832—60 years after the tree was felled—one of Ledyard's contemporaries, Ebenezer Muldoon, now old and nearly blind, identified the true stump near the Connecticut River for some undergraduates.

This kept the legend alive. But it was 1872, on the hundredth anniversary of the event, before a special committee was formed to erect a monument on the site of the old pine. And that effort languished until 1906 when Melvin Adams of the class of 1871 and John Aiken of 1874 finally got the job done.

On the river bank, in the general location of the old stump, was erected a stone with a plaque commemorating the endeavors of John Ledyard.

It remained in place until the new boathouse displaced it in 1986. Several months ago, members of the Ledyard Canoe Club decided that its new location, half hidden in a corner of the parking lot, did not adequately honor Ledyard's memory. Under the chairmanship of Jay Evans '49, a former member and now an advisor to the club, they successfully petitioned the College to relocate the monument to a more appropriate spot near their clubhouse on the river. There it stands, honoring the exploits of a man from the class of 1776. Ledyard left Hanover before he graduated and indeed did travel as the legend relates. He died in 1789—in Cairo, Egypt.

Jay Evans '49 and Peter Heller '82, Canoe Club director for the fall term, flankthe Ledyard monument.