Old Town

[David Satter]

I picked up another square stern. The bottom of the stem with the serial number on it has a big chip of wood missing. Looks like the first two numbers are missing, or most of them. So what I have is ?? 6087 16 I think the first number is a 1 not sure of the second. to me it looks like a square stern maybe from the 1940s but not sure. She's painted green but probably not the original canvas. Oak decks , seats and thwarts. Is this enough to work with.

 

[Benson Gray]

The closest match in the 1x6087 range is 18 feet long. The Old Town canoe with serial number 116087 is an 18 foot long, CS (common sense or middle) grade, special square end paddling model with red Western cedar planking, open spruce gunwales, oak decks, oak thwarts, oak seats, half ribs, a keel, outside stems, a floor rack, sponsons, a rowing seat, and rowlocks. It was built between June and December, 1935. The original exterior paint color was dark green. It shipped on February, 25th, 1936 to Fort Wayne, Indiana. A scan showing this build record can be found by following the link at the attached thumbnail image below.



This scan and several hundred thousand more were created with substantial grants from the Wooden Canoe Heritage Association (WCHA) and others as you probably know well. A description of the project to preserve these records is available at http://www.wcha.org/catalogs/old-town/records/ if you want more details. I hope that you will join or renew your membership to the WCHA so that services like this can continue. See http://www.wcha.org/about-wcha to learn more about the WCHA and http://www.wcha.org/store/membership to renew.

It is also possible that you could have another number or manufacturer if this description doesn't match your canoe. Please attach some pictures of the numbers and confirm the length. There should also be a serial number on the inside stem which might be easier to read. Feel free to reply here if you have any other questions.

Benson

 

[David Satter]

Thanks for helping, Still best I can come up with is the first number may be a 1 the second number I can only see the top edge of may be an 8 or 0 . she's a 16 foot square stern. I'll inspect the numbers better when I get it in the shop. thanks..

 

[Benson Gray]

The 106087 record shows a fifty pound model and 186087 went on a fiberglass kayak. A three can often look like an eight so the 16 foot long All Wood Sea Model with number 106037 shown below might be a match. The fiberglass canoe with number 186037 isn't likely. The other options for a round topped second digit are two, three, six, and nine but these don't show any better candidates with 37 as the last two digits. Pictures and the bow stem seem like the best options for further research at this point.

Benson