Old lapstrake canoe...ID???

[Michael Grace]

Has anyone seen a canoe like the one in the attached photos? Some key features are:

- widely-spaced square ribs
- planking riveted to ribs, clinch-nailed otherwise
- wide (4-5") keel/keelson
- protective metal bands along each edge of wide keel
- stemband is narrow and ends @ top of stem

Any thoughts would be much appreciated.

Michael

 

[Mark Adams]

Sheeeesh Michael, you make me sick! HOW do you keep managing to get all these cherry canoes? Inquiring minds want to know! And don't say it is clean living!

Mark Adams

 

[MikeCav]

I know it's not clean living!

 

[Michael Grace]

Well, after conversations with a variety of folks (thanks Mason, Dan, David, and others) my suspicions are supported that this may have been made by a guideboat builder, though there are some tantalizing possibilities among some other builders.

So, Paul, I found this canoe in Utah of all places, and to my astonishment as I was about to leave I looked over at the adjacent property and saw this amazing collection of old wooden canoes, including even a couple of Willits! Didn't get a chance to stop and meet the fellow out there scraping stripper sludge, but if I'm ever out that way again...

And Mike- next time you see Tanya, please don't engage in conversation... she's furiously wondering about that "not clean living" comment! Gotta keep a little mystery, you know!

Michael

 

[Mark Adams]

Hey Michael,

Where abouts in Utah? That is my old stomping ground and I thought i knew everybody that collected canoes! I'd be interested in meeting this "fellow next door".

Mark

 

[Michael Grace]

Mark,

Curse my fading memory and fast typing! I guess you hitching up the team and hauling yourself from Utah to Nevada kind of killed my little joke (that would be you across the way with the Willits, etc.).

So, ummm, yeah, uhh... what I meant to say was that I found the canoe in NEVADA!!! And yes, there was this guy right across the hedge row of cactus with some Willits canoes, one with no seats and one designed for sailing...

Truth is, the canoe came out of a total happenstance encounter in the Land of Cotton.

The would-be jokester,
Michael

 

[Paul Miller]

Hey Michael,

I find it hard to believe you traveled from FL. to Nevada or Utah and couldn't find 5 min. to talk to another canoe nut!

Let's take a pole and find out who would have stopped and talked and would would have passed it by.

Utah is a great place to hunt dinosaur bones, now they have canoes as well, I'll have to make a point to get back out there.

Thanks,

Paul

 

[Mark Reuten]

My wife would have been whacking me with that pole by the end of the first hour of talking with the canoe nut.

 

[Michael Grace]

I was sitting around dead tired after a long, long, exhausting day (very fun, but exhausting), and instead of sleep I started looking through old threads for unusual canoes. I ran across this old thread about one of our canoes, and realized that even this was a long time ago, I apparently left Paul and maybe some others wondering what the heck I was talking about (i.e., where this canoe came from).

What I was TRYING to do was joke around with Mark A... suggesting that I found this canoe in Reno, NV, right next door to a guy with a "Platte River Canoe" sign out front. Yes, that would be Mark's place, but no, I didn't really go to the high desert for the canoe. It came from an Adirondack man's winter home on the coast of GA.

So Mark, did I ever clarify that joke for you? And Paul, do you like hunting fossils? If so, let's get together! We have hunted across this continent and a bit in other parts of the world. Believe it or not, there are some great places in FL. I just took a group of gifted kids (4th-6th graders) on a fossil hunt a few weeks ago. We dug around in a local stream and came up with a good collection of shark teeth, a few pieces of ancient tortoise shell, and an as yet unidentified mammal tooth. Hmmm... Mark, if you enjoy fossil hunting, maybe we could do some when I actually come to visit next month... hmmm...

Michael

 

[Mark Adams]

Michael,

Should we start calling this thread the Lazarus thread? It is something like 4 years old!

I have never fossil hunted. I am not sure that this would be a good area, being mostly igneous in nature.

 

[Michael Grace]

"4 years old" Yeah, I know. Sleep deprivation makes you do funny things. Just be grateful that the forums crashed not too long ago, or maybe we'd be resurrecting threads from much longer ago! Anyway, Mark, hope you either got the joke or I explained it prior to now.

Michael