Melthias15
Curious about Wooden Canoes
I picked up an 18ft old town in febuary and am interested in its history. The number on the stem appears to be 81254 18. Thank you in advance.
Possible HW 1928
- Thread starter Melthias15
- Start date
You may need to take another look at this serial number since the Old Town build record for serial number 81254 shows a 16 foot long Charles River model from 1924 and the 18 on the end of your number implies an 18 foot long craft. Can you confirm the extreme overall length in a straight line and provide some pictures of the inside stems from each end showing all of the serial numbers and the areas around them? The information at http://forums.wcha.org/showthread.php?791 may help with the digits that are hard to read. Which digit is the least clear? Good luck,
Benson
Benson
Melthias15
Curious about Wooden Canoes
THe hardest to read on one end is the first digit. It may be an 8 or a 6, cant really tell. As for the size, it is a bit longer than an OT tripper, which is 17' long, so seems like an 18' to me.
The Old Town canoe with serial number 31254 is 16 feet long so my guess is that you have the one with number 61254. This is an 18 foot long, CS (common sense or middle) grade, Otca model that was shipped as a Guide Special with red western cedar planking, open spruce gunwales, birch decks, birch thwarts, and birch seats. It was built between May and June, 1920. The original exterior paint color was dark green. It shipped on June 22nd, 1920 to 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/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/about-the-wcha/ to learn more about the WCHA and http://store.wcha.org/WCHA-New-Membership.html to join.
It is possible that you could have another number or manufacturer if this description don't match your canoe. Feel free to reply here if you have any other questions.
Benson
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/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/about-the-wcha/ to learn more about the WCHA and http://store.wcha.org/WCHA-New-Membership.html to join.
It is possible that you could have another number or manufacturer if this description don't match your canoe. Feel free to reply here if you have any other questions.
Benson
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Melthias15
Curious about Wooden Canoes
Awesome, thanks for the info! The person I got it from said that it was purchased as a canoe for a camp in NY, so that would make sense. Only thing that confuses me is an Octa sent as a Guide Special.
Occasionally when things got busy, someone in a hurry would want a canoe which wasn't in stock. It was not unusual for them to send another similar canoe to fill the order and the substitution was noted on the build record. Often they would actually make some minor changes to the canoe as a part of this swap. It appears that the twenty inch long Otca decks were removed and the shorter Guide style decks were installed in your case. You can search this forum for "shipped as" and find many other examples. Let me know if this doesn't answer your question. Thanks,
Benson
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Melthias15
Curious about Wooden Canoes
It does, thank you very much.
