What Michael says makes sense. Paul Hosmer Jr. Actually gave his dad the money for both and kept the second for himself later. I could not access the second record. The picture with Willits on Devils Lake with Paul and Jan Hosmer looks like a new and different Willits than 689. That picture probably was taken in 1961 in the summer. Paul Hosmer died in 1962. It is interesting that Paul Sr had the back seat custom adjusted for the height he wanted. I agree that AI is problematic, but I did prompt me to try to figure out what happened by rereading Hosmer's correspondence and asking for help. Paul Jr. Was in the Navy in 1942. I came to the family through my connection with Jan's daughter Leslie. She married Jim in 1957 with two daughters at the time. The earliest I would have come to Elk Lake probably was 1965. Jim and Paul Jr. split time at the cabin when Hazel, Jim's mom was still alive and I met Paul Jr. only a few times. I may have seen 945 on top of Paul Jr''s car a few times but it was never at the lake when I visited. Paul Jr. died around 1980 and his canoe was then and is now in Portland as far as I know. His two daughters are still alive, but we have lost touch with them after the cabin burned in 1998. I have been talking with my wife Leslie about 689 and her memory about how it would have been damaged. She was 9 years old when Jan married Jim. She says she was never allowed to paddle the Willits until she was much older. Jim bought Grumman canoe for others to use. She has no memory of the Willits being damaged, yet it was when it came to me in 2000. Leslie has a memory of Jim fiberglassing 689 in Eugene after his dad died, then regretting the decision And taking a grinder with a sanding disk to it later to get it off. He then used epoxy putty and paint on it, several colors over time. He wrote Willits Bros. In 1963 and tried to buy a new one but was rejected as one of the brothers had died. I was not a witness to any of this as I was in college and then the military during the Vietnam war until late 1968.
The first Hosmer Willits, 1933 vintage I think, was purchased by Paul Sr. from the U of O canoe club in Eugene. That on had a sail rigging and is in all the early pictures. That one was fiberglassed later and sold to the neighbor Dr.Guyer for $25 in the late 50's. It was used at Elk Lake, then went to Seattle with his son Dean. After I restored 689, in 2023 Dean asked me if I wanted it back as it was too heavy and was lying facedown in the mud in Seattle. He offered it to me for $25. Sold!
I spent the next summer talking the fiberglass off the canoe with a heat gun and sanded and did minimal structural repair and returned the canoe to its non fiberglass skin. I spoke to the Deschutes Historical Museum and asked them if they wanted Paul's first canoe and in what condition. They wanted it unfinished and as close to original as possible. It is there now with a Hosmer history exhibit. At one point I had that hull number but don't now. Next trip to Bend, I'll get it and ask for help tracking it's origin.
This is a picture of 689 in 2010 at Elk Lake waiting to get it's feet wet.
