‘River Dave’ doesn’t think he can go back to being a hermit
CONCORD, N.H. » An off-thegrid New Hampshire man’s days living as a hermit appear to be over. “River Dave,” whose cabin in the woods burned down after nearly three decades on property that he was ordered to leave, says he doesn’t think he can return to his lifestyle.
“I don’t see how I can go back to being a hermit because society is not going to allow it,” David Lidstone said in an interview with The Associated Press on Tuesday.
Lidstone, 81, said even if he could rebuild his cabin, which burned down last week, “I would have people coming every weekend, so I just can’t get out of society anymore. I’ve hidden too many years and I’ve built relationships, and those relationships have continued to expand.”
Lidstone, a logger by trade who chopped his firewood and grew his food in the woods along the Merrimack River in the town of Canterbury, said he’s not grieving the loss of his life in isolation.
“Maybe the things I’ve been trying to avoid are the things that I really need in life,” said Lidstone, who drifted apart from his family. “I grew up never being hugged or kissed, or any close contact.
“I had somebody ask me once, about my wife: ‘Did you really love her?’ And the question kind of shocked me for a second. I ... I’ve never loved anybody in my life. And I shocked myself because I hadn’t realized that. And that’s why I was a hermit. Now I can see love being expressed that I never had before.”
Lidstone, who is still married but is estranged from his family, declined to comment further on his relationship with them. Two of his three sons had told the AP they hadn’t been in touch with their father recently, and his daughter did not respond to a message seeking comment.
He was jailed on July 15 on a civil contempt sanction and was told he’d be
“I’ve hidden too many years and I’ve built relationships, and those relationships have continued to expand.” — David Lidstone
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.
Lidstone had said a prior owner in the family gave his word years ago that he could live there, but had nothing in writing. He later disputed that he was even on the property.
In court Wednesday, both sides agreed to arrange for Lidstone to collect his cats and chickens and remaining possessions at the site; some items had been given to police for safekeeping.
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.