210: The Lost Boy. Katahdin Woods and Waters National Monument.

National Park After Dark

Audioboom Studios

True Crime, Places & Travel, Wilderness, Society & Culture, Sports

4.8 • 4.6K Ratings

🗓️ 4 March 2024

⏱️ 76 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

In July 1939 12-year-old Donn Fendler was separated from his group while hiking Mount Katahdin. What ensued is one of the largest search operations in Maine state history and the incredible story of one little boy’s will to survive.

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Sources:
Book - Lost on a Mountain in Maine by Donn Fendler as told to Joseph B. Egan

Documentary – Finding Donn Fendler

Websites & Articles – New York Times, The University of Maine, Millinocket Historical Society, Deadline, Washington Post, NPS, Baxter State Park, Friends of KWW, Appalachian Mountain Club

Transcript

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0:00.0	Every life or death situation ultimately comes down to those two outcomes.
0:08.0	You will survive or you will perish.
0:11.0	When people find themselves in those types of events, whether it be a natural disaster,
0:15.6	accident, or a violent crime, it is often not what we have that makes a difference,
0:21.2	but what we think. Our brains can often be the most important
0:25.2	tool for survival. State of mind often makes all the difference. In his 2010 book
0:32.1	Survivor's Club The Secrets and Science that Could Save Your Life,
0:36.0	Ben Sherwood lists 12 survival traits, psychological strengths that survivors consistently draw upon.
0:43.8	Among them are adaptability, faith, resilience, hope, love, purpose, empathy, tenacity, and
0:50.8	instinct.
0:52.1	The will to survive is something all survivors have and the key to that
0:56.3	will lies in one's attitude. Your state of mind is everything, even if it feels as though all is lost, and so are you.
1:07.3	Welcome to National Park After Dark. work. I wonder if I was the only one who was thinking when you were listing off all the traits that survivors typically have.
1:36.0	I'm like, okay, do I have that?
1:38.0	Do I have that?
1:39.0	Do you have this one? No.
1:40.0	I think you have...
1:41.0	The positive thinking. I think I have that one. I think you have the positive thinking I think I have that one I think you have
1:45.2	love empathy hope for sure ten tenacity, I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. My survival's not
1:58.0	looking really great. I know you have like a very positive well that's the thing it's like
2:03.9	positivity and I think that you emulate that overall so you're welcome
2:09.6	what a great way to start this episode. I love it.
	...

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