Request Build Info For 98191-16

[Rick Mott]

I am the great-grandson of the purchaser. The canoe has been in the same camp for about 90 years. Nice to have something around that's older than I am and still in pretty good shape.

 

[Benson Gray]

Welcome and congratulations, the Old Town canoe with serial number 98191 is a 16 foot long, AA (or top) grade, Otca model with western red cedar planking, open mahogany gunwales, twenty inch decks, a keel, and a floor rack. It was built in 1928. The original exterior paint color was white with a half inch gold stripe and turned down ends. This was probably similar to the image at http://www.wcha.org/catalogs/old-town/designs/design27.gif which was also known as the design number 27. It shipped on June 26th, 1928 to Brantingham Lake, Glenfield, Lewis County, New York. A scan of 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. 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 appreciate that you have just joined 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. A family connection always makes a canoe extra special. Feel free to reply here if you have any other questions.

Benson

 

[Rick Mott]

Dear Benson -- Thanks! It's actually "Brantingham" lake. That's where I am right now. Kudos to the effort to get all this data in electronic form, and thanks again for the quick reply.

Rick

 

[Benson Gray]

Oops, I have corrected the error. Sorry about that,

Benson

 

[Benson Gray]

The black and white scan didn't capture some of the lighter details. The color scan below shows that it also has half ribs and outside stems.

Benson

 

[Rick Mott]

Dear Benson -- Fascinating, thank you!

Um, dumb question. I knew about the half ribs, they're visible on the inside, but what are outside stems? Not familiar with those.

 

[Rick Mott]

Never mind, Google is my copilot.

I just learned that the "stem" is the part of the frame which makes the bow and stern curves, so "outside" probably means there's more wood trim covering the border of those curves.

 

[Greg Nolan]

These canoes have outside stems (one painted, one left bright):

These do not:

 

[Benson Gray]

Yes, as Greg has kindly illustrated. You can think of the outside stem as an extension of the keel around the ends of the canoe to the tops of the decks.

Benson