Welcome and congratulations, the Old Town canoe with serial number 136572 is a 16 foot long, CS (common sense or middle) grade, Yankee model with open spruce gunwales, ash decks, ash thwarts, ash seats, and a keel. It was built between December, 1942 and April, 1943. The original exterior paint color was dark green. It shipped on May 26th, 1943 to Zelienople, Penna. It returned for repairs on May 20th, 1948. Scans showing both sides of this build record can be found by following the links at the attached thumbnail images 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/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
http://www.wcha.org/about-wcha to learn more about the WCHA and
http://www.wcha.org/store/membership to renew.
It is also possible that you could have another number or manufacturer if this description doesn't match your canoe. The serial numbers and length were usually stamped on each stem as shown below. This one may have had some unusual wear. There is a current project researching the use of steel hardware during the period when your canoe was built. Does this canoe have steel bolts, tacks, or stem bands? See
http://www.wcha.org/forums/index.php?threads/16107/ for more details. Feel free to reply here (or there) if you have any other questions. Thanks,
Benson
