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Offers Flooding In After New Hampshire Hermit's Cabin Burns Down

Maine Public | By Associated Press

Published August 6, 2021 at 8:01 AM EDT

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In this photo provided by the Canterbury (New Hampshire) Fire Department, smoke rises Wednesday, Aug. 4, 2021, from the burnt remains of a cabin in Canterbury, N.H., inhabited by 81-year-old David Lidstone, who for 27 years has lived in the woods of New Hampshire along the Merrimack River in the once small, solar-paneled cabin. "River Dave," as he's known by boaters and kayakers, has been jailed since July 15 after being accused of squatting for 27 years on the private property. The Canterbury fire chief said there will be an investigation into the fire.

CONCORD, N.H. (AP) - An off-the-grid New Hampshire hermit known to locals as "River Dave" whose cabin burned down on wooded property where he was squatting has been inundated with offers from as far away as California for a new place to live.

Eighty-one-year-old David Lidstone — who originally grew up in Wilton, Maine — lived in the woods along the Merrimack River.

He was jailed on July 15 on a civil contempt sanction and was told he'd be released if he agreed to leave the cabin, which is on property owned by a Vermont man. He was released Thursday, after a judge ruled the Lidstone would have less incentive to return to the property now that the cabin is gone.