Old Town? #17911-17

[aac426]

I have what looks like an Old Town Otca canoe. This # is from the stern. The # on the bow is harder to read although the 1st 1 & the 9 are very legible. There are no markings anywhere & it appears to be originally green. I have attached a photo of the serial #.
Thanks Al

 

[Benson Gray]

The build record for the Old Town canoe with serial number 17911 shows an 18 foot long canoe so my guess is that you have a Carleton canoe. This is a 17 foot long, AA grade, Carleton model with red Western Cedar planking, open mahogany gunwales, mahogany decks, mahogany trim, sponsons, and painter rings. It was built in 1924. The original exterior paint color was dark green with a black and white checked border. This may have been similar to the image at http://www.wcha.org/catalogs/old-town/designs/design03.gif which was known as design number three. It shipped on March 27th, 1924 to Baltimore, Maryland. A scan of this build record can be found by following the link at the attached thumbnail image 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/wcha/ to learn more about the WCHA and http://www.wcha.org/join.html to join or 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.

Benson