In my opinion Rushton has achieved his notoriety and status mainly because he had such a champion in Atwood Manley with his book “Rushton and his Times in American Canoeing.” It has gotten to the point that we genuflect at the mention of his name and remove out hats when we enter the Rushton Room in the Adirondack Museum. Don’t get me wrong, he built great, innovative boats, but he was not the only one to design and build great boats. What he was good at was advertising his products with self laudatory ads and catalogs that promoted his boats as the best conceived since Noah built the ark. Brand name recognition was just as important back then as it is today.
I have a Rushton canoe in my barn that looks like the only tool used in its construction was an axe. My Crandel, Morris and Old Town Charles River are better boats by far.
Now that this thread has been completely high jacked I’ll shut up.
Jim C.
Jim,
If you have a Rushton built canvas canoe that you are comparing to the wood and canvas canoes built by Morris and others you have really missed the mark in terms of understanding Rushton boats and his reputation. These canvas canoes were not his Meister St
Ück. His passion was building wooden canoes and boats. He built his reputation and branded his name building all wood open and closed canoes and double ended boats.
Long before there was wood and canvas coming from Maine he was a regular at the early ACA events where his boats were held in high regard. He was fortuitous and clever enough align with Nessmuk but he also exhibited at the Worlds Fair. He was a builder and a business man.
There is no doubt that he did not give too much serious consideration to building wood and canvas canoes. That said, when push finally came to shove he built the Indian models to compete with the canoes pouring out of Maine. These were very beautifully made and in the A grades were built from fine quality materials. Most of us have that have seen or that own these canoes will agree that these were nicely built and finished. But, they were his "Chevrolet Model" canoes. Not quite as nice as an all wood canoe, but a nice boat nevertheless.
For most folks though the model of choice was the less costly B grade canoe, his "GMC's." I suppose that these are the ones built with an axe? I have several of theses later B grades. Mine were built at a time when the quality was presumably at a low, possibly while Judd was running the business. Even so, I am impressed with how beautifully the ribs are shaped and spaced, how tightly the planking is fit, how neatly the nails are spaced and how beautifully the thwarts are shaped. The lines are gorgeous. I see no signs of primitive construction on these canoes. The only thing that is "inferior" to my Morris is that the decks are not formed like they are on the Morris. That was a special Morris "signature" touch.
I wonder if you own a true Rushton? Is it possible that you own a canoe that was built on my IG form after the Canton factory was closed?
My IG form came from a planing mill in Potsdam where Brown supposedly built canoes for a while. After he left, perhaps someone less skilled carried on for a while. I always wondered if some IG copies might show up. Atwood and I discussed this a few times but never came to a conclusion. He had never seen any IG clones in his travels and I have not heard of anyone else finding one. They must be out there though. Without a top notch shop supervisor to oversee the build, who knows what the quality of these might be?
It's a shame that you never met Atwood. He was a very interesting man. He was passionate about Rushton for many reasons but most of all because of the gorgeous boats that he built.
Atwood's Rushton sat on his side porch. He would proudly show it to anyone that cared even though back then not too many did.
Did he help to fuel the myth? Yes, probably.
But like JH before him, to build a reputation you need to start with some substance. I submit respectfully that Rushton's boats provided that and that Atwood simply told the story.
If you need to find a new home for the ax built IG, let me know. I'll settle for another.
