Old Town store, model displays

[Cliff Ober]

Recently Greg Nolan and I paddled some of Cold Stream off of the Passadumkeag river north of Bangor. On the way over there we stopped in to the Old Town factory store to have a look; it was the first time visit for me and was pretty interesting.

In addition to all the new merchandise they have a number of old canoes on display that are nice to see, and they have a couple of model dioramas showing canoe construction. These are to me extremely well done and give a great insight to a couple of the processes of construction. Does anyone know who made these dioramas or if there are others that illustrate the full construction process?

Cliff

More Pics: https://cdober.smugmug.com/Canoes/CanoesMisc/

 

[Benson Gray]

Does anyone know who made these dioramas or if there are others that illustrate the full construction process?

My brother Seth Gray made these in the 1970s and the original plan was to have a full set documenting the entire construction process. These are the only two that were finished before he left the company in the early 1980s. The form in the one on the left is 42 inches long. This form was probably used to make many of the original Carleton and some early Old Town models. It is the only original model canoe form that is still known to exist. The two foot, three foot, and four foot ones are all missing now (and the exact dimensions of the smaller ones are approximate). Let me know if you want more details,

Benson

 

[Cliff Ober]

My brother Seth Gray made these in the 1970s...
Benson

Benson, your brother's skills are impressive; those dioramas are the equal of any museum exhibits I've seen. It's unfortunate they're the only two.


Cliff