By Barbara Scott
Staff Writer
On Saturday Aug. 13, some residents may have wondered what was taking place at the Caribou Public Library. With the library and city office parking lots full, along with any adjacent spaces, children, adults and entire families entered the 100-year-old facility, not only to help celebrate the milestone birthday but to hear first-hand, from Donn Fendler himself, his experience of being “Lost on a Mountain in Maine.”
Aroostook Republican photos/Barb Scott
Guests participating in the recent open house celebrating the 100th birthday of the Caribou Public Library enjoyed refreshments that included this cake, made by employees at Paradis’ Shop ‘N’ Save in Caribou. Library staff members, dressed in period clothing, were on hand to serve the light refreshments. The cake, decorated with a photo of the library on High Street also depicted philanthropist Andrew Carnegie at left and Sarah Roberts, who served as the Caribou Public Library’s first librarian from 1911 through 1918.
Invited to help celebrate the public library’s 100th birthday by Diane Dubois, library director, Fendler, now 85, spoke for nearly two hours keeping the standing room only audience captured with his story.
“I couldn’t have asked for a better open house,” stated Dubois, “we were just delighted with the turnout (estimated to be 150, if not more). “I had 46 copies of Lost on a Mountain in Maine on hand to be purchased and signed by Donn,” Dubois said. “Many of our guests brought their own copies to be signed and we had people who signed up for a copy once more were ordered. I ordered 46 more copies, which once received, I sent to Don Fendler, who was most gracious in agreeing to sign them for us,” she added.
In 1939 Donn Fendler, at age 12, with his father, two brothers and two friends embarked to climb Mt. Katahdin in Baxter State Park. “We didn’t have the necessary items people carry with them now-a-days,” stated Fendler, “When my friend Henry (who was a few years older) and I got permission to strike out ahead of the others at one point, because we thought they were going too slow, my father said, ‘Don’t leave Henry.’” Fendler told the audience at the library that the only provisions he had with him were two handfuls of raisins — and he had eaten those before even starting the climb.
Diane Dubois, director of the Caribou Public Library and special guest, Donn Fendler, during the recent library open house, celebrating 100 years of library service in Caribou. Fendler, whose true-life experience is the story behind the book, “Lost on a Mountain in Maine,” spoke to a standing-room only crowd, relating the grueling nine days he spent lost in Baxter State Park, and his journey out of the park area to the east branch of the Penobscot River where he was rescued.
During that first leg of the journey a storm developed and Fendler voted to go back down the trail and find the rest of his party. Henry Condon advised against this, feeling that they should just stay put, but Fendler was scared and decided to follow the trail back down to find his father.
Fendler, narrated his experience with clear facts, interjected with humor, at the same time owning up to what he should have done and how scared he became throughout the ordeal.
Becoming separated from Henry and unable to locate his father and the rest of their group, the young Fendler became disoriented while seeking a way back, at one point sliding off the mountain into “pucker brush” that was very dense. Unable to walk through it, he laid across the top of the bushes, pulling himself along, finally falling through. “When I came out of the brush, I could see a trail leading up to the top and I thought I could make it, I also saw the Saddle Trail, which goes down, which I should have taken,” he said.
Eventually Fendler came across an avalanche slide which he decided to go down. “Still lost, I found a small stream, scared and hollering for my dad, ” he said.
“My sneakers were all beatup, my feet were swollen so I put them in the stream for awhile then laid back down and went to sleep. The next morning I woke up and saw nothing but trees — no dad, no brother and no friend,” he said.
Fendler spent eight days lost and barefoot in Baxter State Park. Although not actually on the mountain any longer, the young boy was disoriented, in shock and began hallucinating. “One time I thought I saw Henry’s head on a stump,” recalled Fendler. Another time he believed he saw four men in robes walking toward him with their arms outstretched, but when he called out to them they ignored him. In another dream or imagination he saw a black sedan with no driver but his father was in the back seat.
Fendler said that his prior Boy Scout knowledge finally kicked in and he willed himself to keep calm and to follow the land downstream, thinking that eventually he would come into civilization. “The bugs were absolutely the worst,” said Fendler, “they drove me into the stream.”
Aroostook Republican photo/Barb Scott
Charles and Agnes Porter Sczuroski, of Caribou, in their grandest finery, visited the Caribou Public Library during the Aug. 13 open house/100th birthday celebration.
It was during the last two days of being lost that Fendler’s legs became so stiff that he had difficulty standing and found himself passing out. It was then that, “When I couldn’t get up I felt hands on my shoulder, telling me to get up, — that was my guardian angel,” Fendler quietly said.
On the last day, I kept walking and came across another body of water, which was the east branch of the Penobscot River. Although he considered swimming across the river to the houses he saw on the other side, Fendler said he knew he would never make it. After attempting to use “blow downs” to traverse the river, it was then that a resident saw him, knowing immediately it was the young boy that family members, volunteers, and wardens had spent days searching for.
“During the five days immediately after I became lost, father kept telling the searchers, ‘he’s not on that mountain’ and he was right. I spent one day on the mountain and wandered for the next eight trying to find my way out of the woods.”
Fendler, weighing 75 pounds at the beginning of his journey and only 50 pounds when he was rescued, said the only food he had throughout the nine days, aside from the raisins (on the first day) was a half-cup of wild strawberries and plenty of water.
During his presentation at the Caribou Library, Fendler said that surprisingly enough, the only injuries he had sustained were a lot of bug bites, scratches and bruises. His left big toe was in bad shape, however, due to scrapping it when he tripped at one point, later becoming embedded with slivers of wood but eventually healed following medical attention.
“I had developed no diseases, I had no broken bones and I did not have any mental scars — no flashbacks or dreams,” he said.
At the end of the presentation, Fendler fielded questions from children and adults alike pertaining to his famous experience. When asked what he thought helped him get through being lost nine days, he replied, “Faith in God, a lot of prayers, my Boy Scout training and inner strength — the will to live.”
Asked to pinpoint what he had learned from the situation he answered, “Faith, responsibility and the love of family.”
Aroostook Republican photo/Barb Scott
Caribou library staff members, from left, Jean Shaw, Mary Anderson and Liza Guerrette, were all decked out in their stunning period clothing, ready to assist library supporters and guests at the 100th birthday celebration/open house held on Aug. 13.
Aroostook Republican photo/Barb Scott
Donn Fendler, seated at left, whose story is told in the book, “Lost on a Mountain in Maine,” by Joseph B. Egan, spoke to a large enthusiastic crowd of youth and adults at the Caribou Public Library prior to signing copies of the popular book.
Aroostook Republican photo/Barb Scott
Dressed in proper period attire, Mona Martin, teen/young adult librarian at the Caribou Public Library had the honor of cutting a cake in celebration of the institution’s 100th birthday during the recent open house.
