WWII canoes
John and Wendy,
Your canoe was shipped only a short time after the US became involved in WWII, in December of 1941. I don't think the shortages impacted canoe builders that soon into the war, as far as the cane used for seating and ferrous metals for screws... but I could be wrong about that. In any case, the stem band is something that could have been replaced at any point... does it appear to be original?
Aluminum was among the metals that was collected for The War Effort... so, if your aluminum stem band is original to the canoe, someone didn't turn it in... which would have been strange for a scout camp not to do, as the scouts themselves would have been whipped into the sort of zeal that would have had them prying off all the bang plates and turning them in, to be melted down (just my impression!).
Maybe that's what happened: the original stem band may have been brass, and it was donated to The War Effort... then, after the war, the aluminum band went on. My guess is that aluminum stem bands were a post-war thing. Denis Kallery says he stopped at Old Town for supplies in the early '80s, and all they had on hand were aluminum stem bands.
Someone else here may know exactly when WWII shortages changed the way canoes were built for a while. By '43 for sure... extending past the end of the war for a year or so.
Kathy