I don’t know if this is of any interest to anyone but I found what looks like an old cedar strip canoe…and that’s a guess…then to my surprise, the woman that has it and is selling it said it was an Old Town. This thing looked to be pretty old…cane seat inserts, all wood, a pile of what looked like strips that finish the sides at the top edges, gunwales? I don’t know a lot about canoes but this thing looked interesting. There were remnants of old paint and one color was definately a light to medium blue and then some really faded and thin red.
I saw no writing or any way to I.D. the canoe but if someone near me is interested or even someone that would have such a thing moved if it’s of tremendous value, shoot me a PM and we’ll talk. All the talk I hear about restoring them and even building them from scratch made me take notice.
If you look on the central stem piece on the bottom of the bow and stern, Old Town “brands” an ID that ties each of their canoes to paperwork that dates back to the early 1900s. I’ve never seen an Old Town without the branded ID number. Maybe this will help. If you don’t find one, it’s unlikely an Old Town. JGW
Hello white43, thanks for the info on the Oldtown ‘brand’…I’m wondering if it will consist of a string of numbers and letters or should it say ‘Oldtown Manufacturing’ or some such? It’s a ways to go see this canoe again but I hate to see it get away if it’s the real thing and it looks really old. Any paint that was once on it is all but worn and faded off. Thanks again !
Most of the old ones have only numbers. I did a story on Old Town 14664 earlier this year, and was able to trace it back to when each of the steps were completed at the Maine factory, when it was sold, to whom, and where it was shipped (St. Paul, MN). I was also able to trace it from now back to the mid-1950s, each of the owners, and what each did in restoration efforts. A daughter of the people who lived in the cabin on Green Lake near Willmar, MN, in the last stages of alyzhimers and recalls nothing of the three high school boys who paid ten dollars for a pretty rotten hull and canvas that was about gone. They restored it as a non-canvas strip canoe, which it has been for the past 50 some years. The last owner, since 1964, asked me to help in his restoration efforts, and an Old Town restoration specialist in Benson, MN, was the one who found the brand. Since doing the story this is the first place I look to see if it’s an Old Town. The fellow I did the story with has recently retired and is now going full tilt boogie restoring it to it’s original luster, complete with the canvas. He’s learning each step as he goes, from bending the wood to filling the canvas. His dream is to relaunch the boat this year, which is in its 100th year! Cool, huh? JGW
Wow…I’ll say it’s cool…ok, I better not let this canoe get away unchecked. I’ll give these folks a call and have them look for numbers. If they find something like you’ve shown I’ll post it here. If not I won’t know what else to do but this thing has to be old. Thanks again white43.