Old Town Canoe Company's production during World War Two

Benson Gray

Canoe History Enthusiast
Staff member
I was recently asked a question about the Old Town Canoe Company's production during World War Two and thought that others here might be interested in the answer. The chart at http://www.wcha.org/forums/index.php?attachments/24293/ shows a scatter plot of the ship dates for a small sample of the Old Town build records. Their canoes were not typically shipped in serial number order so the large horizontal spread during a few periods indicates that some individual canoes were occasionally held in inventory for many years. The large flat spots on the curve indicate periods of exceptionally low demand like World War One from 1917 to 1919 and the depths of the Great Depression from 1932 to 1934. The Second World War had a small flat spot from 1942 to 1943 but this was largely due to shortages, price controls, and related disruptions rather than a lack of customer interest. The company records show 2617 units shipped in 1942, 3521 in 1943, and 3698 in 1946. There were significant financial issues during 1944 and 1945 so the units sold were not recorded. (A similar gap in the records exists from 1918 to 1919 during the problems related to World War One.) The number of serial numbers issued during the 1944-1945 period indicates that the unit sales may have been around 2000 per year or less. Let me know if this doesn't answer your question or if you would like more details. Thanks,

Benson
 
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