bsterling1745
Enthusiastic about Wooden Canoes
I am not sure whether this is the correct place for this but couldn't find a better place.
On Sunday, August 12th, YMCA Camp Widjiwagan in Ely, Minnesota, received a call from a counselor stating that her trail group’s wood canvas Seliga canoe had been taken from the end of a portage. They were in Northern Ontario, portaging out of Quetico Park from French Lake into Little Eva Lake. They had to cross the Trans Canadian Highway in order to do this. They had portaged and then stashed the canoe inconspicuously in a ditch just south of the highway. Then went back for the rest of their gear. When they returned, their canoe was missing. They searched up and down the highway and flagged down a number of vehicles to see if anyone noticed a canoe being transported in either direction, but no one had.
The canoe that was taken was a 17’ Seliga canoe, serial number 036611, built in 2003. It was painted gray with W50 (letters approximately three inches high) painted in red, on both sides of the canoe, in the bow. It was a memorial canoe for a former women’s trail staff named Jean Boening.
The loss is not limited to only a financial one for the camp, but is also a loss of a canoe with significant historic and sentimental value as well.
A full report has been provided to the authorities in Atikokan, Ontario. A number of outfitters in the area, along with Quetico Provincial Park staff, have been alerted. They were provided with a full description of the canoe.
We hope that WCHA members can help track this down. The more eyes looking for this canoe, the better. The canoe could already be a long ways from Atikokan. Please be on the lookout for this canoe. Through your connections and networks, please spread this information.
Anyone with information about this canoe should contact YMCA Camp Widjiwagan in Ely, Minnesota at 218-365-2117. Or reach out to the Director, Matt.Poppleton@ymcamn.org.
As a final note, in 1927 someone stole the Seliga family’s 1906 18’ Morris. It was a blow to the family. Joe Seliga was sixteen years old. Through tenacity and determination, the family found the canoe, almost a year later. The canoe had been painted on the inside with house paint, likely white. Joe removed that paint and re-varnished the canoe, returning it to its original beauty.
That canoe turned up. W50, the Jean Boening Memorial Canoe, will turn up somewhere. Thank you for your efforts to help find it.
Bruce Casselton
bcasselton@aol.com
On Sunday, August 12th, YMCA Camp Widjiwagan in Ely, Minnesota, received a call from a counselor stating that her trail group’s wood canvas Seliga canoe had been taken from the end of a portage. They were in Northern Ontario, portaging out of Quetico Park from French Lake into Little Eva Lake. They had to cross the Trans Canadian Highway in order to do this. They had portaged and then stashed the canoe inconspicuously in a ditch just south of the highway. Then went back for the rest of their gear. When they returned, their canoe was missing. They searched up and down the highway and flagged down a number of vehicles to see if anyone noticed a canoe being transported in either direction, but no one had.
The canoe that was taken was a 17’ Seliga canoe, serial number 036611, built in 2003. It was painted gray with W50 (letters approximately three inches high) painted in red, on both sides of the canoe, in the bow. It was a memorial canoe for a former women’s trail staff named Jean Boening.
The loss is not limited to only a financial one for the camp, but is also a loss of a canoe with significant historic and sentimental value as well.
A full report has been provided to the authorities in Atikokan, Ontario. A number of outfitters in the area, along with Quetico Provincial Park staff, have been alerted. They were provided with a full description of the canoe.
We hope that WCHA members can help track this down. The more eyes looking for this canoe, the better. The canoe could already be a long ways from Atikokan. Please be on the lookout for this canoe. Through your connections and networks, please spread this information.
Anyone with information about this canoe should contact YMCA Camp Widjiwagan in Ely, Minnesota at 218-365-2117. Or reach out to the Director, Matt.Poppleton@ymcamn.org.
As a final note, in 1927 someone stole the Seliga family’s 1906 18’ Morris. It was a blow to the family. Joe Seliga was sixteen years old. Through tenacity and determination, the family found the canoe, almost a year later. The canoe had been painted on the inside with house paint, likely white. Joe removed that paint and re-varnished the canoe, returning it to its original beauty.
That canoe turned up. W50, the Jean Boening Memorial Canoe, will turn up somewhere. Thank you for your efforts to help find it.
Bruce Casselton
bcasselton@aol.com
