Lost on Katahdin - Donn Fendler Exhibit

In 1939, 12-year-old Donn Fendler was separated from his companions on the top of Katahdin and became the subject of a massive rescue mission that focused the nation’s eyes on Baxter State Park and Millinocket.

While his father and uncles joined the search daily, his mother stayed at Camp Natarswi, a Girl Scout camp on Togue Pond, where the girls were not allowed to sing Taps at night because “all was not well.” Hopes were dim when nine days later, Fendler walked out of the woods on his own to a cabin in remote Lunksoos, near Grindstone, having traveled nearly 50 miles through the wilderness.

His story was told in the popular book, Lost on a Mountain in Maine, read by thousands of Maine schoolchildren.

The Millinocket Historical Society’s summer exhibit tells the story through a scrapbook of local newspaper clippings and pays tribute to the many people who helped in the search and celebrated the boy’s rescue. You can view the exhibit online or visit the historical society at 80 Central Street in Millinocket, right on the way to Baxter State Park.