“River Dave” or David Lidstone is the New Hampshire hermit who’s getting a second chance to live out his isolated lifestyle after his home was lost in a fire.
This was achieved thanks to a noble donation from a tech billionaire, Alexander Karp. Karp is the CEO of Palantir Technologies who wrote River Dave a check for $180,000 to help him rebuild his cabin elsewhere.
Lidstone’s close friend Jodie Gedeon explained this in a post on her Facebook. This donation was also confirmed by a spokesperson of Palantir on behalf of Karp which has a net worth of over $2.1 billion.
Lidstone, the Man Who Has Been Living as a Hermit for 27 Years in the Woods
Gedeon shared a video of Lidstone who had been living as a hermit for almost three decades in the woods near the Merrimack River until the circumstances changed. In the video, he’s sharing his gratitude for the unexpected benefactor.
He says how he can’t express how he feels for what Karp has done and if he tries to go any further, he will probably break down and cry. He thanked him several times!
Gedeon added in her post that the donation is essential so that this man can go back to the harmony and peace in nature that he loves so much.
Lidstone also said how it’s incredibly difficult to get his head around the fact that anyone can give someone that amount of money, considering he’s an old logger who always had to work.
Lidstone Couldn’t See Himself Going Back to the Hermit Life
Lidstone explains that after he pleaded his rights to live in his remote cabin of nearly three decades in court, he couldn’t see himself going back to this way of life as society doesn’t allow it.
A court summary says that he was jailed on July 15 under a civil contempt sanction that the Merrimack Superior Court issued because he refused to leave a private property that’s owned by Leonard Giles and where he lived.
Although one of Giles’s family members once told Lidstone he could stay, Giles wanted the man to leave after he saw him there in 2015.
While he was defending his case from jail, Lidstone’s home was destroyed in a fire that was started accidentally by someone who tried to dismantle the cabin. Lidstone was later released from jail and agreed in court to get together his personal belongings, cats, and chickens from the location.
After this happened, the support for Lidstone really came through. More than 270 donors donated to a GoFundMe page to help Lidstone’s relocation!
Together with his supporters, he celebrated the donation by Karp during a party at the house of one of his friends. Gedeon directly invited Karp to come and meet Lidstone and said how he would be honored to shake his hand and thank him in person.
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