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[Shauna Harding]

We recently purchased an old Old Town Canoe. We were told it was roughly 1925-1935. It has been redone, it is a wood canoe. Roughly 15'. Serial number 115679. Then there is a space and what looks to be '15'. Any way of tracking history on this canoe? Its in beautiful shape, we now have it hanging in our house.

 

[Benson Gray]

Welcome, the Old Town canoe with serial number 115679 is a 15 foot long, CS (common sense or middle) grade, fifty pound model with red western cedar planking, open spruce gunwales, oak decks, oak thwarts, oak seats, a keel, and a bob stay (i.e. a painter ring mounted low on the bow near the water line for towing). It was built between March, 1935 and March, 1936. The original exterior paint color was dark green. It shipped on March, 9th 1936 to Chicago, Illinois. 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 others 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 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 join.

It is also possible that they could have another number or manufacturer if this description doesn't match your canoe. Feel free to reply here if you have any other questions.

Benson

 

[Shauna Harding]

Oh my goodness! How cool! Thank you so much! Amazing to know the history behind such a treasured piece of history!