Serial Number Search

David D

Curious about Wooden Canoes
I am looking for any info on a old town canoe that I just purchased off Craig's list. Serial # 19602 18. Any help would be appreciated
 
Welcome and congratulations, the Old Town canoe with serial number 19602 is an 18 foot long, GS (Guide Special or utility) grade, IF (Indian fishing) model with red western cedar planking, closed spruce gunwales, ash decks, ash thwarts, ash seats, and keel. It was built between November, 1911 and June, 1912. The original exterior paint color was slate. It shipped on June 17th, 1912 to Altoona, Penna. A scan of this build record can be found by following the link at the attached thumbnail image below.

19602.jpg

This scan and several hundred thousand more were created with substantial grants from the Wooden Canoe Heritage Association (WCHA) and others as you probably know well. 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 http://www.wcha.org/about-wcha to learn more about the WCHA and http://www.wcha.org/store/membership to join.

It is also possible that this canoe could have another number or be from a different manufacturer if this description doesn't match your canoe. Feel free to reply here if you have any other questions.

Benson
 
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Wow! That's awesome! Thank you so much for your time. Now I just need to start the restoration on it. Was the Slate a popular color? I don't think I have ever seen that before.
 
This may seem like a strange request but do you have any idea what size that build sheet would have been? I would like to print it out and display with the canoe. Thanks Dave
 
do you have any idea what size that build sheet would have been?

The image information for your build record indicates that it is 12.4 x 14.4 cm or 4.87 x 5.67 inches. The original paper record is slightly larger but I cropped out the parts with no useful information. Let me know if this doesn't answer your question. Thanks,

Benson
 
Hi Benson, hate to be a pain but would it be possible to get a full uncropped image of the build record? I would like to re-create it as accurate as possible. Thanks again
Dave
 
Welcome and congratulations, the Old Town canoe with serial number 19602 is an 18 foot long, GS (Guide Special or utility) grade, IF (Indian fishing) model with red western cedar planking, closed spruce gunwales, ash decks, ash thwarts, ash seats, and keel. It was built between November, 1911 and June, 1912. The original exterior paint color was slate. It shipped on June 17th, 1912 to Altoona, Penna. A scan of this build record can be found by following the link at the attached thumbnail image below.

View attachment 40910

This scan and several hundred thousand more were created with substantial grants from the Wooden Canoe Heritage Association (WCHA) and others as you probably know well. 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 http://www.wcha.org/about-wcha to learn more about the WCHA and http://www.wcha.org/store/membership to join.

It is also possible that this canoe could have another number or be from a different manufacturer if this description doesn't match your canoe. Feel free to reply here if you have any other questions.

Benson

Benson,
This canoe appears to be a Carleton. It has the typical Carleton decks and carry thwarts.
Thoughts?
 
The Old Town canoe with this serial number currently listed on Craigslist appears to actually be a Carleton. The Carleton build record for that serial number is shown below.

Benson


c-19602.jpg
 
I stopped by the factory yesterday and got color versions of these records. It was also interesting to find that the Old Town one had a note on the back about a prior request for a copy of that build record.

Benson



c-19602.jpg

19602-c.jpg
19602-b.jpg
 
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