I have a friend that asked me to find out about the canoe with the above serial number. It is 18 feet long if I remember correctly. Thanks in advance for your help.
The Old Town with serial number 156421 is an 18 foot long, CS (Common Sense or middle) grade, Guide model with red Western cedar planking, open spruce gunwales, and a keel. It was built between September and November, 1951. The original color was G. S. (Guide's Special) green. It shipped on February 1st, 1952 to Willow Springs, Illinois.
A scan of this build record can be found by following the link at the thumbnail images attached below. This scans and several hundred thousand others 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/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 don't match your friend's canoe. Feel free to reply here if you have any other questions.