The Old Town canoe with serial number 144555 is a 17 foot long, CS (common sense or middle) grade, Otca model with open spruce gunwales, ash decks, ash thwarts, ash seats, and a keel. It was built between March and June, 1946. The original exterior paint color was dark green. It shipped on June 12th, 1946 to Greenwood, South Carolina. The canoe returned for credit and some repairs on May 22nd, 1947 as shown on the back side of the card. It shipped to Riverside, New York on June 23rd, 1947. Scans showing both sides of this build record can be found below.
These scans 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/catalogs/old-town/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
https://www.woodencanoe.org/about to learn more about the WCHA and
https://www.woodencanoe.org/shop to donate or join.
It is also possible that you could have another number or manufacturer if this description doesn't match the canoe. This was an era when things were in short supply so the round headed bolts may be original. Other canoes with serial numbers in the 1455xx range had diamond headed bolts. Feel free to reply here if you have any other questions.
Benson
