The Old Town canoe with serial number 78395 is a 16 foot long, CS (Common Sense or middle) grade, HW (heavy water) model with red western cedar planking, open spruce gunwales, birch decks, birch thwarts, birch seats, a keel, bilge keels, and a bang plate along the full length of the keel. It was built between June and July, 1923. The original exterior paint color was dark green. It shipped on July 30th, 1923 to Spokane, Washington with two number one grade spruce paddles with seven inch blades. One was four feet long and the other was five feet long. 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 as you probably know well. 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. The transom. floor rack, and half ribs were all probably added after it left the factory as Dave mentioned since none of them are listed in the original build record. Feel free to reply here if you have any other questions.
Benson
