BANGOR – Donn Fendler, whose nine days as a boy lost on Mount Katahdin in 1939 became front-page news all over the country; Galen Cole, who remembers hearing about the story as it happened and now hosts Fendler yearly at the Cole Land Transportation Museum; and Patrick McGowan, commissioner of the Maine Department of Conservation and cameraman on a helicopter trip over Katahdin this summer.

Boy, wouldn’t you like to have been a fly on the wall?

For the next best thing, come to Donn Fendler’s program at 9:30 a.m. Saturday, Sept. 16, at the Cole Museum, 405 Perry Road. Hear the author of “Lost on a Mountain in Maine” and see the 15-minute video the Department of Conservation is editing from the footage McGowan took.

The commissioner, though much younger than 80-year-old Fendler, has “known him for a long time” and still is mesmerized by the almost-unbelievable tale of survival of a 12-year-old boy.

“It’s just a great story of will and determination,” McGowan said. Even with the changes that six-plus decades has brought to the woods, “Donn said, ‘I remember that place, Wassataquoik Stream,'” as the trio flew over the terrain. “He just had unbelievable recall.”

Because of the weather the day of the trip, McGowan said, the helicopter followed Fendler’s path in reverse, up the stream to the mountain where he first became lost and the subject of a search by hundreds of people.

Fendler now spends every summer in Maine and has become something of a legend to the youngsters and oldsters fascinated by the tale of his journey from the top of Maine’s tallest mountain through the woods to a cabin near Patten.

Of course, there was a life after finding his way back.

Later married and the father of four, Fendler became a U.S. Army paratrooper whose duties included advising the South Vietnamese about parachuting behind enemy lines, organizing patrols and other techniques.

He retired from the Army as a colonel and resides in Tennessee, but also went on to an unofficial, but cherished, role as an educator in Maine.

Over the years, he has visited hundreds of classes to talk to schoolchildren about his experience, what he learned and how his Boy Scout skills helped him get through the nine days.

A grateful Fendler calls it “a way to give back” to the Mainers who looked for him and stood by his family during the search.

He’s even been to Oregon to speak to schoolchildren there.

Fendler, who never made a cent from “Lost on a Mountain in Maine,” which he co-authored with Joseph Egan, credits schoolteachers for keeping the book in print more than six decades after it was first published.

He will sign books during the program, and the Cole Museum will have some copies available for purchase in its gift shop.

The author’s work with kids is right up Galen Cole’s alley. Cole, who founded the Cole Museum and its program that brings in thousands of youngsters to interview veterans about their service, hopes that pupils will show up in great numbers to meet Fendler.

“Such an inspiring story he tells for young and old alike,” Cole said. “Come and bring children, grandchildren and friends of grandchildren. It will be a day to remember!”