A Sanctuary for Meandering Meadows and Memories

Few American naturalists wandered as far afield as Edwin Way Teale. During the 1950s and ‘60s, he crisscrossed the continental U.S. to research his four-volume rhapsody about American seasons: “North With the Spring,” “Journey Into Summer,” “Autumn Across America” and “Wandering Through Winter.”

The series garnered Teale a Pulitzer Prize in nonfiction. During his era, Teale, author of more than 30 books, was America’s foremost naturalist.

Home for Teale from 1959 until his death in 1980 was Trail Wood, an old Connecticut farm where he wrote all of his later books. Leaving behind their home on Long Island, N.Y., Teale and his wife, Nellie, searched long and hard before finding the place of their dreams.

Connecticut is spared the worst of winter’s wrath, sometimes staying snow-free for much of the season; it’s usually among the first areas in New England to burst into spring. Trail Wood beckons the nature lover with a muddy but magnificent spring. A walk here can add much to the experience of touring southern New England.

Trail Wood is no mere farm. The land displays a remarkable array of ecological niches: woods, meadows, rocky ridges, even a beaver pond. Teale called it “a sanctuary farm--a sanctuary for wildlife and a sanctuary for us.”

One would think that Teale, whose award-winning writings were based on lengthy journeys to spectacular natural scenes, might have felt his creativity constricted when he turned his attention to his own backyard. Such was not the case. What Walden Pond was to Thoreau, Trail Wood was to Teale. His writings about “the small picture” show Teale to be a master of intricate detail--butterflies, light and shadow and the rich complexity of the web of life.

These days Trail Wood is called the Edwin Way Teale Memorial Sanctuary and is managed by the Connecticut Audubon Society. Those who know Teale’s work will be charmed to visit the many engaging places mentioned in his books: Azalea Shore, Wild Plum Tangle, Nighthawk Hill, Seven Springs Swamp and four dozen more. Pilgrims can also visit Teale’s writing cabin and his home, constructed in 1806. An embryonic museum is beginning to take shape in one of the farm’s outbuildings.

Pick up a map from the information shed and wander at will--fashioning a loop of two to three miles. Along with the natural world, a walking tour also reveals centuries of human activity: a colonial-era road turned trail, a railroad bed, stone walls that start, then abruptly end in the middle of the woods.

Teale’s Trail Wood is a kind of living testament to the fact that you don’t have to travel far to encounter the natural world. His sanctuary, now ours, is located 40 miles north of New London, 40 miles south of Worcester, Mass., 40 miles east of Hartford and 40 miles west of Providence, R.I.

In his 1974 memoir about life on the edge of the wild, “A Naturalist Buys an Old Farm,” Teale movingly summed up what a place like Trail Wood means in an ever-more-hectic world: “Our fields are unplanted. But they are not unused. The yield for us is made up of observations and memories, of greater understanding and little adventures by the way.”

Access: From Interstate 395 north, take U.S. 6 west to Highway 97 (Hampton) north, 1.5 miles to Kenyon Road. Turn left and drive 0.5 mile to the tiny sign on the left marking the entrance to the Edwin Way Teale Memorial Sanctuary.

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Old Colonial Road, Beaver Pond Trail

WHERE: Edwin Way Teale Memorial Sanctuary

DISTANCE: 2- to 3-mile loops.

TERRAIN: Quintessential New England -- woods, meadows, beaver pond.

HIGHLIGHTS: Home and haunts of one of America’s foremost naturalists.

DEGREE OF DIFFICULTY: Easy

For more information: Connecticut Audubon Society, 118 Oak St., Hartford, CT 06106, tel. (860) 455-0759.