The Old Town canoe with serial number 20055 is a 17 foot long, CS (common sense or middle) grade, Charles River model with red western cedar planking, closed spruce gunwales, ash decks, ash thwarts, ash seats, and a keel. It was built between 1911 and February, 1912. The original exterior paint color was auto gray. It shipped on February 28th, 1912 to Toledo, Ohio. A scan of this build record can be found 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/ot_records/ if you want more details. I hope that you will donate, join, or renew your membership to the WCHA so that services like this can continue. See
https://www.woodencanoe.org/about to learn more about the WCHA and
https://www.woodencanoe.org/shop to donate or join.
It is also possible that you could have another number or manufacturer if this description doesn't match the canoe. The Carleton and Kennebec canoes with this serial number are 17 feet long from 1931 and 1929 respectively. The books at
http://store.wcha.org/Books/ can help with the restoration. The ones at
http://store.wcha.org/The-Wood-and-Canvas-Canoe.html and
http://store.wcha.org/This-Old-Canoe-by-Mike-Elliott.html are particularly appropriate. Can you confirm the overall extreme length in a straight line and attach some pictures of the serial numbers from each end, the bow deck, and the interior to help confirm the manufacturer? Feel free to reply here if you have any other questions.
Benson
