A man went to jail for refusing to leave his cabin of 27 years on someone else's land. Then, it burned down.
- David Lidstone was jailed after refusing to leave his cabin of 27 years in the New Hampshire woods.
- Lidstone's cabin, which was on someone else's private property, burned to the ground on Wednesday.
- The New Hampshire State Fire Marshall's Office is investigating the cause of the blaze.
David Lidstone, known as "River Dave," lived in an off-the-grid cabin on someone else's private property for 27 years before it was destroyed in a fire Wednesday, the Associated Press' Kathy McCormack reported.
The cabin in the woods of Canterbury, New Hampshire, burned to the ground, according to a press release from the Canterbury Fire Department, which says the State Fire Marshall's Office is investigating the cause of the blaze.
Lidstone - who was not in the cabin at the time of the fire - was jailed on a civil contempt sanction for refusing to leave the property on July 15, according to a Merrimack Superior Court case summary obtained by Insider.
The AP reported that Lidstone, 81, was informed he would be released on the condition that he vacate the cabin, which he has refused to do since 2017 when a judge ordered him to leave the property. Before the blaze on Wednesday, it was also understood that Lidstone could also be released 30 days after he was jailed, or if the current owner tore down the cabin, the AP reported.
The land belongs to Leonard Giles, who said he didn't know Lidstone was on the land until a town administrator informed him in 2015 with concerns about waste disposal and potential zoning violations, according to a complaint Giles filed in 2016, the AP reported.
Giles' family has owned the land since 1963 and has no current development plans, according to the AP. The same source also reported that the current owner had been hoping to demolish Lidstone's cabin.
Giles' lawyer Lisa Snow Wade said that the majority of Lidstone's items were taken out of the cabin before the blaze, according to the AP. Giles and Snow Wade, respectively, did not immediately respond to Insider's request for comment.
Lidstone, who doesn't have legal representation, has maintained that his cabin is "a hunting and fishing cabin, not a home," the AP reported. Lidstone has also said that the owner told him he could live there years ago but has nothing in writing to prove it, according to the same source.
The AP report describes Lidstone as a "bearded, small-framed, spritely man," known for inviting adventurers into his home and telling them about his life.
Lidstone's cabin was a two-story, wooden structure with a kitchen and wood stove that he turned into a beehive, and where he lived with a cat and some chickens, according to the AP. Canterbury Fire Department Chief Michael Gamache told the AP that no animals were found at the site of the blaze.
While a hearing is due to take place on August 11, according to the Merrimack Superior Court case summary obtained by Insider, the AP reports that Lidstone's status is uncertain at this time.