Old Town Serial Number Request

[portagedog]

Hello! I am looking into an Old Town that is described as 17' long and very old. I had to direct the fellow, who is selling this for a friend and he knows a lot about bass boats, but precious little about canoes, to the stems for a serial number, which he thought rusted. I managed to convince him it was probably crazed or blistered varnish, which he was kind enough scrape though and was pleasantly surprised to fine the numbers 4284 17. I am hoping you can find a build sheet to tell me more about this canoe. It's over an hour away and seller says he is unable to post pictures...something to do with Windows 10. I don't think I'm going to get much more from him unless he finds a way to send some pictures. Thanks in advance.

portagedog

 

[Benson Gray]

The Old Town canoe with serial number 4284 is a 17 foot long, CS (common sense or middle) grade Charles River model with closed spruce gunwales, ash decks, ash thwarts, ash seats, and a keel. It was built between January and April, 1906. The original exterior paint color was dark red. It was shipped on April 28th, 1906 to New York City. A scan showing 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 as you probably know well. 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 will join or renew your membership to the WCHA so that services like this can continue. See http://www.wcha.org/about-the-wcha/ to learn more about the WCHA and http://store.wcha.org/WCHA-New-Membership.html to join.

It is also possible that you could have another number or manufacturer if this description doesn't match your canoe. Many canoes with low serial numbers turn out to have one or more hidden digits upon closer inspection. Eight of the canoes in the 4284x range are also 17 feet long for example. Feel free to reply here if you have any other questions. Let us know what you find,

Benson

 

[portagedog]

Thank you very much Benson. I'm relying on the bass boat guy's ability to check the serial number, but it appears this canoe might be much older than the 1930's time frame he suggested. I'm still hoping he can come through with some pictures. The 1945 canoe may be closer to his estimate. Hmmm....some more investigating is in order.

portagedog