Dating My Canoe

Steffan Sarkin

New Member
I recently acquired an old wooden canoe, 17 feet long with sponsons and keel. It’s only marking is a metal embossed label attached to the deck from the VL&A outdoor retailer from Chicago. The canoe has serial number #95163. Alongside is the number 17. Asking for help to identify the manufacturer and date.
 
Welcome and congratulations, my guess is that you have the Old Town canoe with serial number 95163. This is a 17 foot long, CS (Common Sense or middle) grade, HW (heavy water) model with red Western cedar planking, open spruce gunwales, birch decks, birch thwarts, birch seats, a keel, and sponsons. It was built between July, 1927 and 1928. The original exterior paint color was dark red. It shipped on May 28th, 1928 to Chicago, Illinois. A scan of 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. Additional information about 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.

It is also possible that you could have another number or manufacturer if this description doesn't match your canoe. Feel free to reply here if you have any other questions. Good luck with the project,

Benson



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