20' Old Town Guide Canoe

[Brums]

I am new to the forum but feel that I will be spending some time here because I just traded a bamboo fly rod that I built for a 20' Old Town Guide canoe.

I already have some information, but wondering if anyone has either more specific or even general info about the canoe. Records that I have place it as a 1968 and that it was sold to Bonner's in Grand Rapids, Michigan. Any more info out there?

Not sure how many were made in this length, but this thing is a beast. Glad the guy threw in a trailer too.

I plan on using it at my cabin to haul around my English Setter while we look for bluegills with bamboo fly rods. Seems to be a good fit for this....?

The serial number on the canoe is:

179881 20

Thanks in advance for all the help and advice. Looking forward to contributing and learning from this forum.

Kirk

 

[Benson Gray]

Welcome, the Old Town canoe with serial number 179881 is a 20 foot long Guide model with half ribs and a keel. It was built between January and February, 1968. The original exterior paint color was G. S. (Guide's Special) green. It shipped on March 5th, 1968 to Grand Rapids, Michigan. A scan showing 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 also possible that you could have another number or manufacturer if this description doesn't match your canoe. There is some more information about this canoe at http://forums.wcha.org/showthread.php?5390 from 2010. It should be great with a dog and a fly rod. The estimates at http://www.wcha.org/catalogs/old-town/models.html indicate that about 2445 of these were made between 1920 and 1970 which works out to around 48 per year. Feel free to reply here if you have any other questions.

Benson