Ot 96291
- Thread starter mccloud
- Start date
The Old Town canoe with serial number 96291 is an 18 foot long, CS (Common Sense or middle) grade, Otca model with red western cedar planking, open spruce gunwales, ash decks, ash thwarts, ash seats, a keel, outside stems, a floor rack, mast seat, mast step, and a rudder. It was built between November, 1927 and July, 1929. The original exterior paint color was dark green with "La Voyageur" on the right bow and left stern. It was shipped on January 16th, 1929 (although this was probably supposed to be 1930) to Pittsburgh Plate Glass, Frederick Road Station, 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 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 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 don't match the canoe. There is no indication of anything on the back side so it probably wasn't returned to the factory for repairs. Orders for repair parts were typically not noted on the build record. Feel free to reply here if you have any other questions. Please post some pictures if the original lettering is still showing.
Benson
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 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 don't match the canoe. There is no indication of anything on the back side so it probably wasn't returned to the factory for repairs. Orders for repair parts were typically not noted on the build record. Feel free to reply here if you have any other questions. Please post some pictures if the original lettering is still showing.
Benson
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Thanks, Benson. It took awhile to figure this out, as my initial assumptions were wrong. That undecipherable second line on the build sheet actually reads Rennous, Kleinle & Co., which was a manufacturer of brushes located in west Baltimore, just inside the city limit. That Baltimore neighborhood is now known an Gwynn's Falls, but was previously Carroll Station and Frederick Road Station, and was on the Pennsylvania RR. The canoe is in poor shape and has migrated to southside Virginia. So we all know that Old Town shipped canoes all over the country by rail, but what was the rail line that ran into Old Town, ME? Was it the Pensy? Tom McCloud
There were many rail lines in Old Town at various times. The page at http://maineanencyclopedia.com/railroads/ says "The first railroad companies in Maine were chartered in 1832 and 1833, and, after some initial difficulties, the first line of tracks was completed in 1836 by the Bangor & Piscataquis Canal & Railroad from Bangor to Old Town." The page at http://www.abandonedrails.com/Bangor_and_Piscataquis_Canal_and_Rail_Road shows the route and describes how "General Veazie renamed it the Bangor, Old Town and Milford Railroad. The European and North American Railroad bought the line in 1869, and it was ultimately acquired by the Maine Central Railroad in 1882." The Bangor and Aroostook Railroad also had a line there for a time. There was even a round house in town for repairing engines as shown below. Your canoe probably left town on the Maine Central Railroad although the Bangor and Aroostook Railroad owned the tracks that ran right next to the factory.
Benson
