BarnFind 1926 Old Town

[jlarrabee]

Hey guys, i just got a call from a guy who lived about 30mins from me with a Old Town Project he had. He said it was hit by a tree and sent back to Old Town some years ago. And when he got it in 1985 it was in need of restoration so he took it apart, and a hail storm came and punched holes in the sheeting.

The bow stem needs work because he put it in a shed and then a tree fell on it and poked holes in the bow.

My real question is that who do I call at Old Town to see if I can find documentation of the canoe, and would they have the repair history?

The serial number is 116493 17

and if anyone is interested in anything else I've been doing as a young novice canoe builder, check out my blog and see my many projects http://larrabeewatercraft.blogspot.com/

 

[Benson Gray]

The Old Town canoe with serial number 116493 is a 17 foot long, CS (common sense or middle) grade, Otca model with red western cedar planking, open spruce gunwales, ash decks, ash thwarts, ash seats, and a keel. It was built between November, 1935 and June, 1936. The original exterior paint color was similar to the one shown at http://www.wcha.org/catalogs/old-town/designs/design10.gif which was known as design number 10. It shipped on June 24th, 1936 to Detroit, Michigan. 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. It was returned for repairs on July 27th, 1936, July 21st, 1937, and November 7th, 1944. There is probably more information about these repairs on the back side of this record which was not scanned. You can contact the factory and they may be able to send you a copy of that information if they aren't too busy. Please let me know if how it goes. Feel free to reply here if you have any other questions.

Benson

 

[smallboatshop]

Answered above

 

[jlarrabee]

Wow! Thank You so much! We knew that it was at least shipped back once, but 3 times is amazing! I will continue digging up info and share as I find it!