Am the proud owner of a wood and canvas canoe that I purchased at an estate auction recently. Believe it to be an Old Town canoe. Found the following serial numbers on the stem at each end with the length number, (7874 18). Wanting to find as much I can about the canoe. I have pictures and would be interested to know about colors used and decals that would have been used. The canoe has evidence that it may have had a sailing rig of some type at one time. I appreciate any and all information you can provide. Thanks for your valuable assistance in my effort to find more about this canoe and its history. Harrison
Serial Number search
- Thread starter Harrison
- Start date
Congratulations, but you probably don't have the Old Town canoe with serial number 7874 since this is 16 feet long. My guess is that you have the Carleton canoe with serial number 7874 which is an 18 foot long, grade B, Guide model with closed spruce gunwales, a middle thwart, spruce finish / outside gunwales, a keel, and may have one of the two floor racks that shipped with it. It was started before Old Town purchased Carleton in March of 1910 and finished in March, 1911. The original exterior paint was N. H. (New Haven railroad) green. It shipped on March 20th, 1911 to Minneapolis, Minn. 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 doesn't match your canoe. The sail rig is not mentioned in the build record so that was probably added after it left the factory. The 1912 catalog listed the stock colors as "Dark Green (always in stock), Dark Red, Light Green, Light Red." A large number of Carleton catalogs are available at http://store.wcha.org/The-Historic-...pany-Catalog-Collection-Version-2-CD-ROM.html in the Historic Collection. Carleton didn't have a decal but usually placed a brass tag on the bow deck instead. You may find signs of some small nail holes left there. See http://forums.wcha.org/showthread.php?1906 for more information on this topic. It would be helpful if you could post some pictures of your canoe and confirm the length. Feel free to reply here if you have any other questions. Thanks,
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 doesn't match your canoe. The sail rig is not mentioned in the build record so that was probably added after it left the factory. The 1912 catalog listed the stock colors as "Dark Green (always in stock), Dark Red, Light Green, Light Red." A large number of Carleton catalogs are available at http://store.wcha.org/The-Historic-...pany-Catalog-Collection-Version-2-CD-ROM.html in the Historic Collection. Carleton didn't have a decal but usually placed a brass tag on the bow deck instead. You may find signs of some small nail holes left there. See http://forums.wcha.org/showthread.php?1906 for more information on this topic. It would be helpful if you could post some pictures of your canoe and confirm the length. Feel free to reply here if you have any other questions. Thanks,
Benson
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