War Canoes

[Todd F]

Searching this section of the forums I found about 5 mentions ref "war canoe". It appears there is a fair amount of recorded history / pictures of war canoes specifically at camps and for racing events.

Has anyone done extensive research into war canoes specifically?

Benson, is it possible to search, using some sort of word recognition, the existing build records for all 25' and larger OT canoes? If not I MAY be interested in going through them to provide a rough data base.

If anyone has a "war canoe" would be interested in any photos etc.

 

[Benson Gray]

Has anyone done extensive research into war canoes specifically?

No, I don't recall anyone ever searching out "the existing build records for all 25' and larger" Old Town canoes. Rollin is working on one now as shown at https://www.wooden-canoes.com/canoe-cam/ on his webcam. The estimates at http://www.wcha.org/catalogs/old-town/models.html indicate that about 43 of the 34 foot long ones were probably made between 1906 and 1927 along with 622 of the 24 foot long ones that were likely made between 1913 and 1960. Several others are known to have been made after those dates but these didn't show up in the sample.

The model names and lengths were usually hand written on the build records and I've not found a good optical character recognition (OCR) package that can accurately transcribe this information. There are some good OCR packages for hand written documents but they are likely to be much more than you or I can afford. I can offer some tips to help simplify the search process if you decide to proceed. Good luck,

Benson

 

[Todd F]

Thanks for the link, look forward to watching it progress. Will send you a PM to get your advice. Thanks Benson.

 

[Rob Stevens]

A presentation was made at the 2022 Assembly;

Restoring a 42’ Peterborough War Canoe

Bob Henderson provides insight into the restoration of this unique 42’ Peterborough War Canoe built by Murdock for Taylor Statten Camps (Algonquin Park) in 1925.

I will PM you his e-mail so you can connect with Bob if interested.

And have you seen this photo from a long ago Assembly? (Jim & Betsy Wilson may have a better resolution copy)

 

[Todd F]

Thanks Rob. Love the pic!!!

 

[Todd F]

Rob, any idea if there is any sort of copy of the 2022 presentation mentioned above? If you could PM me please do. Many thanks

 

[Benson Gray]

I don't believe that Bob Henderson's presentation about Restoring a 42’ Peterborough War Canoe was recorded. Many other presentations from the 2022 Assembly are available at https://www.youtube.com/@woodencanoeheritageassocia587/videos but this doesn't appear to be with the others. Sorry,

Benson

 

[Todd F]

Thanks Benson.

As mentioned I started reviewing the build sheets on the drives I purchased from WCHA. Between serial number 1-8000 I have found 3 war canoes (4034 / 6430 / 6777). Two of them were shipped to George W Orton in New Hampshire. Interestingly he was Canadian studying at the University of Penn and competing in several athletic teams. For the 1900 Olympic Games in Paris he ran for the United States as Canada did not have a team. He won a bronze medal and gold medal, becoming Canadas first Olympic champion. He is also one of the founders of Camp Tecumseh in New Hampshire. I have reached out to the camp directors to see if they are aware of the canoes and if there are any pictures / stories of the war canoes.

 

[Benson Gray]

Two of them were shipped to George W Orton in New Hampshire.

The first one was probably shown in the 1907 catalog below since the text identified it as "on a lake in New Hampshire." The pair were shown in the 1912 catalog below.

Benson

 

[Benson Gray]

There is also one war canoe that you won't find in the records since it was made about six months before they started using those cards. The newspaper article and postcard below have more details. The article at https://newspapers.library.in.gov/?a=d&d=IJ19031108.1.16&e=-------en-20--1--txt-txIN------- indicates that the Microbe Club of Indianapolis, Indiana "opened its new club-rooms on East Twenty-first street" during the evening of November 7th, 1903.

Benson

 

[Todd F]

Those gents are looking pretty dapper.

 

[Rob Stevens]

Bob's talk was not recorded, but he directed me to a 7 minute film made by Taylor Statten Camps when they were restoring the war canoe;

 

[Todd F]

Thanks Rob, found another about several being restored at Camp Sewyolakan.

 

[safisher]

Your research made me recall the time we paid for a chance to paddle a "war" canoe in the Mississippi River through the river locks in Minneapolis, MN. I checked with others on that long past trip and clearly those canoes were fiberglass.
It also makes me recall the Francis Lee Jaques' 1947 painting "Pictured Rocks at Crooked Lake" which is sometimes called "Return of the Voyagers. (Someday, I'd like a print of that.) If you look closely the voyagers are paddling larger canoes, but I don't know if they are war canoes. If you ever get a chance to paddle in Crooked Lake along the American / Canadian border between the BWCA & Quetico parks, the location of this painting is still breathtaking.

 

[Todd F]

Would love to see that in person. I have a nice print of the painting Departure at Daybreak at Ft Niagara. Grew up in that area and was always intrigued about the history of it all. Good stuff!

 

[Rob Stevens]

I grew up in Hamilton, at the western end of the Niagara Peninsula near the site of the historic battle of Stoney Creek (War of 1812). In 2020 we moved to Niagara Falls, Ontario, and have been learning more of the history of that war by visiting museums, battlefields, forts and cemeteries. Fort Niagara has a longer history as shown by this recent documentary; https://www.pbs.org/video/wned-tv-history-fort-niagara-struggle-continent/

And here is "Robert Griffing- Departure At Daybreak. Fort Niagara 1769"
that Todd F references above.

 

[Todd F]

Rob, thanks for sharing that video, brings back great memories. I spoke with the curator at the Fort, apparently they have a canoe, not a war canoe, but a canoe none the less. Will try to check it out this summer.

 

[Dan Lindberg]

If this was with Wilderness Inquiry, the canoe was likely a stripper, made by the guys/shop in St Paul.

Your research made me recall the time we paid for a chance to paddle a "war" canoe in the Mississippi River through the river locks in Minneapolis, MN. I checked with others on that long past trip and clearly those canoes were fiberglass.

 

[Todd F]

Well, through build sheet serial numbers 1-14999....12 war canoes so far. Not good at public math but I probably have another month to go!

 

[safisher]

If this was with Wilderness Inquiry, the canoe was likely a stripper, made by the guys/shop in St Paul.

Hey Dan, that's the name of the organization. And I'm glad to be corrected on that detail--too long ago to remember clearly.
Thanks, Steve