Hi again, James--
My guess is that your boat began life as a canoe-- perhaps a Thompson or Shell Lake, but your location might help narrow that down (if you live in or near Wisconsin, this guess would seem more accurate)-- and someone modified it so it could be used with an outboard motor. It may originally have had two pointy-ends and one was truncated to accept a motor.
As a 1947-vintage canoe, it might have had plank seats because cane wasn't available until that year (the war-effort dried up sources of cane from about 1943-47).
The records for the canoes by most builders don't exist. Of the older builders, we have Old Town/Carleton's records on CD and Kennebec's are also available to us because they are in a museum. For other builders, there are ways to narrow down the possible year it was built, based on aspects of construction, but no records with an exact date exist--- for instance, canoes from "the war years" may be built without brass or copper. With some canoes, those familiar with old canoes may be able to say, "it looks pre-WWII" or "it's pre-1900". Yours has open gunwales, so we know it's post-1905.
For a canoe to have so much value that you're off to the auction-house to get the money for your boy's college education, it would have to be a Rushton model ("salesman's sample") or something along those lines. Most antique/historic canoes are worth about what the owner has into them, and sometimes not even that... the value is in using them and appreciating their history-- in getting a kick out of paddling something older than your parents, knowing it has seen folks through happy times and maybe helped any sad times feel a bit happier. If my guess is correct, the value of your canoe lies mainly in its history and its use for recreation and not as a collector piece... someone else here may have further input, but I say "enjoy".
I hope this is helpful...
Kathy
