River Dave’s Cabin

Now-a-days, with less and less workers supporting more and more non-workers, what do you do when you find someone like 81-year-old River Dave Lidstone?

River Dave is an airforce veteran who moved to the woods a long time ago.  As far as I know, until recently he’s never been arrested and never been on the public dole.  In the last 27 years he has designed and built his own home, furnished it, and has been supporting himself ever since, while asking for no help from anyone.

So what do you do with someone like that?

Why, you arrest him; take him to jail; and burn his cabin down, that’s what.

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Details about Dave’s past are somewhat sparse.  We know that he has three sons and a daughter, all grown and living elsewhere, and that he used to work as a logger.  We also know that about 27 years ago he appeared in the woods outside Canterbury, New Hampshire, where he built a cozy two-storey A-frame cabin from recycled or repurposed materials.  He gradually furnished the place with all the appurtenances of home, although they might not be what most of us would normally expect to see.

For almost 30 years Dave has cooked with propane he carried into the woods from town.  He dried his clothes on a rope-and-pulley system he strung between the cabin and a nearby tree.  He heated his home with a wood stove, by burning wood he cut and split, and lit his home with solar panels and wiring he installed himself.  He sweetened his coffee or tea with honey that he harvested from a bee hive he made from an old wood stove.  When he rested on his porch, he kicked up his feet on a footstool that had a base made of empty beer cans.

Besides the bees, Lidstone kept chickens and cats around for livestock and companionship.  Not far from the cabin he had a vegetable garden that included berry bushes among its residents.  Dave’s water came from a nearby stream.

River Dave got his nickname from his habit of hanging out by the nearby river.  He may sound like a crusty old hermit hiding out from the world, except that over the years he has made the acquaintance of many hikers and folks canoeing or kayaking down the river, often inviting them back to his cabin where he regaled them with his adventures living in the woods.  Some of those visitors became life-long friends, like Jodie Gedeon, an avid kayaker who met him 20 years ago and has been his friend ever since.

“He’s just a really, really, …caring guy, and just chooses to live off the grid,” Gedeon said of Dave.

The problem was, River Dave, as his friends called him, didn’t own the land he lived on.

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A few months ago, after living on the place for almost three decades, the octogenarian was informed that his home was in violation of local and state zoning and environmental regulations, and they didn’t like that he had no access to a road either.  He was told that the current owner of the land didn’t know he was living there and wanted him off the property.

The owner of the place Dave called home is Leonard Giles, 86, of South Burlington, Vermont.  He inherited the property, which has been in his family since 1963.  According to Lidstone, a former property owner gave him verbal permission to live on the place, but must have neglected to tell his descendents as it was passed down, and didn’t put anything in writing either. 

When the owner was approached by the town administrator in 2015 with concerns about substandard “solid and septic waste disposal and the potential zoning violations created by the structure,” Leonard said he didn’t know anything about River Dave and that the hermit didn’t have permission to be there.

I haven’t found any information regarding why the landowner said he wanted Dave off the place, but Dave said he thinks the town is pressuring the owner to bring the property into compliance with housing laws.

The easiest way to do that would be to get Dave off the property and raze the cabin.

Dave said of Mr. Giles, “He’s a heck of a nice old man.  I’ve talked with him a couple of times. This is not his fault, this is not my fault.”

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The back-and-forth negotiation has been going on for roughly the last seven years, with no side willing to give enough that an agreement could be reached.  However recent events made things a lot tougher for Mr. Lidstone.  While he was in jail, the landowner hired someone to start cleaning the place up.  Much of River Dave’s belongings were removed and the workers were starting to dismantle the cabin when, one day before Lidstone was to be released from jail with orders to vacate the property, the cabin burned to the ground.

Area firefighters did try to fight the blaze but were hampered by Lidstone’s own desire for off-grid life.  Since there was no road access to the cabin they had to drive an “off-road utility vehicle 2 miles into the woods,” according to Canterbury Fire Chief Michael Gamache.  The chief said the cabin “had mostly collapsed upon itself” when firefighters arrived.

While the timing of the fire seems suspicious authorities say there is no evidence of criminal activity. 

None of that did River Dave any good.  Newly homeless and 81-years-old, life seemed to hold few options. 

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The back-and-forth negotiation has been going on for roughly the last seven years, with no side willing to give enough that an agreement could be reached.  However recent events made things a lot tougher for Mr. Lidstone.  While he was in jail, the landowner hired someone to start cleaning the place up.  Much of River Dave’s belongings were removed and the workers were starting to dismantle the cabin when, one day before Lidstone was to be released from jail with orders to vacate the property, the cabin burned to the ground.

Area firefighters did try to fight the blaze but were hampered by Lidstone’s own desire for off-grid life.  Since there was no road access to the cabin they had to drive an “off-road utility vehicle 2 miles into the woods,” according to Canterbury Fire Chief Michael Gamache.  The chief said the cabin “had mostly collapsed upon itself” when firefighters arrived.

While the timing of the fire seems suspicious authorities say there is no evidence of criminal activity. 

None of that did River Dave any good.  Newly homeless and 81-years-old, life seemed to hold few options. 

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Being a nice old man who made friends along the river began to pay off when some friends allowed him to move in with them.  He said he tried to go back to the site to collect some things, but was told he had to go to police first.

“The main thing I wanted out of the whole thing was my Bible,” he said. “Hopefully, Canterbury police took it home. …I had the keys to camp and the camp’s just ashes. So I have the keys to God’s heart, and that’s all I got.”

Talk about a positive attitude.

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Jodie Gedeon was among Lidstone’s friends who discussed setting up a trust for him, as well as helping him to find a new home. 

At least 20 people who heard about River Dave have made offers for the old man to move onto their property, from places as far flung as California and Maine.  A GoFundMe appeal raised over $14,300 to help him.

Gedeon said, “So, it’s really up to David now.”

She continued, “David, pick where you want to live, and we will get you set up before winter.”

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Things were starting to look up for River Dave, then a billionaire stepped into the picture.

A few days ago, as reported by Gedeon, tech billionaire Alexander Karp, CEO of Palantir Technologies, wrote Lidstone a personal check for $180,000 to help him build a cabin in a new location.

River Dave was amazed by the offer, “How can I express myself and my gratitude towards something like that?  I start to tear up whenever I think about it,” he said in an interview with the Concord Monitor. “For an old logger who always had to work – for anyone to give you that type of money, it’s incredibly difficult for me to get my head around.”

He tried to express his gratitude, “Mr. Karp, I cannot express the feelings I have for what you’ve done, if I go any further I’m going to break down and cry,” Lidstone said.  “Thank you, thank you, thank you.”

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In a story where there were plenty of bad things happening, it was tough to pick out a bad-guy to blame.  The property owner is an elderly man who seemed to be “up against the wall” and just wanted to protect himself from civil action.  The law officers were doing their job, whether they liked what they were doing or not.  The judge too was bound by law.

In a movie or book or even in one of my stories, any of the above could have found a way to work things out for Dave.  Not knowing their particular life circumstances, I can’t say for sure what.

River Dave is a nice old man who just wanted to live out his life in peace.  Jodie Gedeon is a kind-hearted lady who stuck her neck out to help a friend.  Others of Dave’s friends stepped up as friends should do.  People from all around sent money to help Dave out.

Finally, Alexander Karp wrote Dave a check.  No, he didn’t make the old man a millionaire, as he might have done in the movies.  In real life, if he had done that, somebody probably would have showed up to take advantage of River Dave.  I guess they still might, but it doesn’t seem like they have…yet.

No, Karp gave River Dave enough money to build a comfortable home to live out the rest of his days in relative ease and comfort.

Isn’t that all he wanted in the first place?

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