He was Baxter State Park’s 1st ranger when Donn Fendler disappeared on Katahdin

BANGOR DAILY NEWS • March 3, 2026

On July 17, 1939, Baxter State Park’s first ranger began searching Mount Katahdin for a lost 12-year-old boy from New York. That ranger was my grand uncle. I was reminded of that story recently when I saw the film “Lost on a Mountain in Maine.” My grand uncle Richard “Dick” Holmes was a smart and humble man who loved the outdoors and navigating its wildness. We shared the same hometown on Mount Desert Island. But Dick was a rare breed, taking his passion for the outdoors to a level few ever reach. In early June 1939, he packed his meager worldly possessions into a 1929 Model A Ford and left Northeast Harbor. His home for the season was the campground at Katahdin Stream, where he lived in a canvas tent as the park’s first and only ranger. Dick helped organize a massive search effort for Donn Fendler, with as many as 600 people scouring the mountain and its base. Eventually, young Fendler reached the East Branch of the Penobscot River, where his cries for help were heard. Dick went on to teach arctic survival skills in the Rocky Mountains. He later graduated from engineer officer candidate school. After the war, he moved to Aroostook County to work as a surveyor. ~ Gregory Burr