Donn Fendler was a 12-year-old boy who became famous for surviving a harrowing nine-day ordeal in 1939 when he got lost on Katahdin. His story of survival captivated the nation.
Fendler grew to manhood, distinguished himself as a military warrior, and during his later years, came back to Maine many times to tell his story. He co-authored a book titled “Lost on a Mountain in Maine” with Joseph Egan.
After all of these years, there is a soon-to-be-released motion picture about Fendler, his family and his amazing and inspiring survival story.
Ryan Cook, a native of Waterville, is the producer of the movie titled “Lost On a Mountain in Maine.” Recently, Cook was a guest on my weekly radio program, Maine Outdoors, on the Voice of Maine News-Talk Network.
Cook said that he had known Donn Fendler for a number of years and always aimed to tell Fendler’s story by producing a movie. As producer, Cook had to find investors and raised millions of dollars to produce the film.
Ironically, according to Cook, the movie was not filmed in Maine.
“There were significant tax advantages for us to shoot most of this movie in New York state rather than in Maine, which we did,” Cook said. Most of the on-location filming was done about 50 miles north of New York City in the Catskills. Of course, the film included actual footage of. Katahdin and other areas near the mountain.
The film stars Luke David Blumm as Donn Fendler, with Caitlin Fitzgerald and Paul Sparks playing his parents. Ethan Slater is also part of the cast. The film is produced by Sylvester Stallone’s Balboa Productions.
Cook gave high marks to the young David Blumm and his performance as Donn Fendler. Cook said it was difficult physically for Blumm because he played the role of a 12-year-old boy whose ordeal left him emaciated with few clothes left, badly cut bare feet and carrying the ravages of bug bites and brush bruises.
Cook is emphatic that this movie is more than a story about a desperate youngster with remarkable resilience and determination, but is also about family love and the role that it, as well as spiritual faith, played in young Fendler’s survival.
As those of us who read Fendler’s book as either grade-school students or adults will recall, it was, in all probability, one correct decision by the former Boy Scout that ultimately saved his life: Finding that stream and following its flow in hopes of finding civilization.
A group of searchers found Fendler near the East Branch of the Penobscot River. In nine days, he had walked more than 50 miles through some of the toughest woods terrain that Maine has to offer.
The movie attempts to address the question many of us ask: What was it that allowed Fendler to survive an ordeal in which many healthy adults would have perished or gone mad?
Survival expert Laurence Gonzales may have come as close as anyone has to providing an answer: “Mental preparation, as well as survival gear, equals survival some of the time. There is yet another dimension.
“It’s not what’s in your pack. It’s not even what’s in your mind. Corny as it sounds, it’s what’s in your heart,” asserts Gonzales.
As a youngster or an oldster, Donn Fendler was quite a human being and worthy of legacy status. He died in 2016 at age 90, but his story continues to inspire generations.
“Lost On a Mountain in Maine” will be released in theaters Friday.
V. Paul Reynolds is editor of the Northwoods Sporting Journal. He is also a Maine Guide and host of a weekly radio program “Maine Outdoors” heard Sundays at 7 p.m. on The Voice of Maine News-Talk Network.
