Hi-- Please re-check the serial number, as Old Town 17017 is a 16 foot Charles River model canoe. Compare the serial numbers on both stems. Posting pictures here can help too. Your neighbor may have something other than an Old Town.
Carleton 17017 is an 18 foot CS (common sense or middle) grade Carleton model canoe with Western red cedar planking, CLOSED spruce gunwales, birch decks/thwarts/seats, and a keel. Originally it was dark green. It was shipped to Camp Asquam (?) in Meredith, NH, on July 3, 1923 and was returned July 30th for some repairs-- then re-shipped to Jones Pond Camps on September 12, 1923. An inquiry regarding this canoe was made on February 3, 1987, from New Gloucester, ME. If this information fits your canoe, this may be the correct record. If you post some pictures, we can confirm if the canoe is a Carleton or you can poke around the "search" function (above) to see pictures of Carletons or go to
www.dragonflycanoe.com/id/ for Carleton information. I'll post images of front and back of the build card.
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/ot_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/wcha/ to learn more about the WCHA and
http://www.wcha.org/join.php to join.
It is also possible that you 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.
Kathy