Welcome, the Old Town canoe with serial number 137012 is a 17 foot long, AA (or top) grade, HW model with open mahogany gunwales, mahogany decks, mahogany thwarts, mahogany seats, a keel, a floor rack, and sponsons. It was built between February and May, 1943. The original exterior paint color was dark green. It shipped on May 24th, 1943 to Muskegon, Michigan. A scan showing 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/catalogs/old-town/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.
The oral tradition is that Henry Wickett was one of Old Town's first employees and the HW model was named for him as reported in Rollin and Jerry's book in the 1980s. Sue Audette's research for her book which came out in the 1990s indicated that Henry Wickett never worked there and that his son Alfred Wickett was the first employee of the Old Town Canoe Company. Roger MacGregor's book came out even later and suggested that HW might have been for a Canadian designer named Henry Wicksteed who was a friend of J. R. Robertson. This last theory seems the least likely since the HW model was listed in the Indian Old Town Canoe Company catalog from 1901 before Robertson became involved in 1902. It is very popular with many Canadians though. Alfred's brother Humphrey Wickett also worked at Old Town for many years so this may be another possibility. The Old Town catalogs consistently described the HW model as being good for heavy water in the same way that the IF or Guide's model was described as being based on an Indian fishing canoe. There is no historical confirmation available of what HW actually stood for.
It is possible that you could have another number or manufacturer if this description doesn't match the canoe. The 1943 catalog at
https://www.woodencanoe.org/_files/ugd/537308_b164a4c3d0cd4191b97d04a9a0e93627.pdf has more details on page six. A listing at
http://www.wcha.org/classifieds is usually the best way to find a good new home for a canoe like this. See
https://www.woodencanoe.org/ad-instructions for a description of the process. Feel free to reply here if you have any other questions. Good luck with the sale,
Benson
