135530

The Old Town with serial number 135530 is a 15 foot long, CS (common sense or middle) grade, Ojibway model with open spruce gunwales, mahogany decks, mahogany thwarts, no seats, and a keel. It was built between June, 1942 and January, 1944. The original exterior paint color was aluminum. It shipped on February 7th, 1944 to New Milford/Danbury, Conn.

A scan showing this build record can be found by following the link at the thumbnail image attached below. This scan and several hundred thousand others 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/ot_records/ if you want more details. I hope that you will join or renew your membership to the WCHA so that services like this can continue. See http://www.wcha.org/about-the-wcha/ to learn more about the WCHA and http://store.wcha.org/WCHA-New-Membership.html to join.

The pictures of this canoe indicate that the stern deck is original and that the plank seats were added after it left the factory. This model was not listed in the catalogs and appears to have been built on the same form as the fifty pound model. Please reply here if you have any other questions.

Benson
 

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Camp Mauwehu CT Old Town Canoes

Greg,

FWIW: my Ojibway canoe, 135632, was set to Milford CT on the same date as yours, 7 Feb 1944. Our order numbers are the same. They were shipped to Al Meserve, who was the major developer of Camp Mauwehu on Candlewood Lake. He was also former president of the Mauwehu Council of the Boy Scouts. Lake Candlewood is located in Sherman, the northernmost town in Connecticut’s Fairfield County. Perhaps those are our canoes in the boat pond shown in the attached image of a vintage post card. I spent many hours in and on that pond as a boy. My Ojibway is in the middle of a restoration.
 

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Mike --

Canoe 135530 is not mine. As I recall, it was a canoe listed on eBay that I was curious about, in part because (again, as I recall) it was located in somewhere in western Connecticut, which is not all that far from where I now live.

Having lived in Norwalk, CT, gone to School at Fairfield University, and dated, long ago, a girl who lived in Danbury, I am familiar with Lake Candlewood and its Squantz Pond park -- the site of several picnics.

I look forward to seeing pictures of your Ojibway when the restoration is finished -- though I suppose since you are in S. Carolina, the pictures will not be on Candlewood.

Greg
 
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