Old Town 148512 17

Hello Dan--

Old Town 148512 is a 17 foot CS (common sense, or middle) grade HW model canoe that was completed April-June of 1947. It has red Western cedar planking, open spruce gunwales, and ash decks, thwarts, and seat frames. It was fitted with a keel and painted dark green, then shipped to Minneapolis, MN, on April 25, 1949.

Does it have cane seats or slatted ones? I ask because it seems to me that in 1947 Old Town hadn't re-established their cane supply, but by '49 they should have been able to put in their standard cane seats (which by then consisted of machine-made sheet cane, fit into a groove on the hardwood frame). So, the canoe might have been finished with wartime slatted seats in '47, which were swapped-out when the cane appeared again. Most build records don't specify slatted seats, even if the canoe had slatted seats. I believe the cane supply dried up for all canoe builders in about 1943 and lasted until about 1947.

Is the canoe still in Minneapolis? I ask because that's my ol' hometown.

The scan of this record is attached below-- click on it to get a larger image. This scan and several hundred thousand others 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/ot_records/ if you want more details. I hope that you and anyone else reading this will join or renew membership in the WCHA so that services like this can continue. See http://www.wcha.org/wcha/ to learn more about the WCHA and http://www.wcha.org/join.php to renew.

It is also possible that you could have another number or manufacturer if this description doesn't match your canoe. Feel free to reply here if you have any other questions.


Kathy
 

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Hi Kathy,

I replaced the seats with cane when I rebuilt and re canvased the canoe in the late 70's. I recall the original seats were slat. I received the canoe from the original owner, and my guess is, it never left lake Minnetonka. It originally was a sailing canoe, and I have all those parts stored away. I replaced the mast thwart with a straight one, and put a nice portage yoke on it. I wanted a classic beauty for trips through the BWCA and the Superior Quetico. I was a teenager when I rebuilt it, and want to do some more work on it now.

It does continue to live in Minnesota, on Christmas Lake. I live in New Mexico now, so it only gets some TLC when I visit.

Thanks for the info,

Dan
 
Many of our members have paddled the same places your canoe has seen! Your canoe has a great history-- glad you still use her, even if only occasionally.

Kathy
 
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