A small poll was conducted in January 1997 through the Wooden Canoe Heritage Association's world wide web site. The intent was to see how many people might be interested in contributing their time or money to create an electronic archive of the early canoe build records from the Carleton and Old Town Canoe Companies. The response was very good and a small team of volunteers have already keyed in over well over thirteen hundred Carleton cards.
The preliminary results are not too surprising. Most of the Carleton canoes had no options (63%), CS grade (68%), dark green (45%), Carleton models (90%), seventeen feet in length (38%), and shipped in the month of March (22%) to dealers in New York City (13%). This is based on a sample of 1301 cards ranging from serial number 558 to 20543 that were shipped between 24-March-1910 and 16-June-1946. More sophisticated data mining and analysis may yield less predictable insights. These preliminary results are summarized in the pie chart graphics below.
The build and repair records consist of about fourteen thousand index cards dating back to 1910 when Carleton was bought by Old Town Canoe. They contain: specific details about each canoe, the dates when each stage of production was completed, the name and address of the original purchaser, and other information. It is estimated that about twenty-five percent of these cards also have comments on the back with additional build details, repairs, new owners, or other details.
More details about this project are available in the description of the Old Town Canoe Company Build Record Archive Project page.
Special thanks are due to: Samuel Johnson, Ron Whitaker, John Blass, Steve Krautkremer, John Shelley, Tim Hewitt, Sue Audette, and especially to the volunteers who helped key in this information: Dan Miller, Dave Smits, Glenn M. Gillis, Bill Whalen, Richard Peters, and Elizabeth Heise.
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