Hello , new member looking for info on a Rhinelander canoe

Hello, I've had an interest in wood boats and canoes for quite some time and have two Old Town's one is a 1935 and the other does not have a serial #. Yesterday I bought a very nice Rhinelander 16ft that the gentleman say's is from the 1940's. Can anyone provide me with any detailed info on these ? Do they have serial #'s ? Thanks for any info, Jon

 

Hello Jon, and congratulations on your new canoe.

There are no known records for Rhinelander canoes, so even if there was a serial number it couldn't be connected to original build information.

There's some information at www.dragonflycanoe.com/id/ (scroll to Rhinelander on the left). You'll see a picture of the Rhinelander splayed stem. You may want to compare this to the Morris splayed stem (same website, only scroll to Morris on the left). The Rhinelander is a canoe by one of several builders who built canoes emulating those of the B.N. Morris Company. The Rhinelander splay is narrower than that on a Morris and the stem itself crosses more ribs-- so there's no confusing one brand of canoe for the other.

You may want to use the "search" function at the top of this page and type in "Rhinelander" to see what you get.

The last time I was in Spooner, WI, there was a Rhinelander canoe chair in a local antique shop-- it had a nice decal. I think I posted a picture in a previous thread here.

I believe there's a Rhinelander catalog in the collection on CD and I'll look that up in a bit and report on it.

Kathy

 

I've attached information on the Rhinelander canoe from an undated catalog contained in the Historic Wood Canoe and Boat Company Catalog Collection CDs available from http://www.wcha.org/catalog/ and http://www.dragonflycanoe.com/cdrom.htm on the web.

 

Thanks for the info Kathy. On the way home with it I stopped to show it to Gene Winters who's father had worker for Rhinelander before he started the Tomahawk Boat Co. Gene said he has a set of decals for me when I get that far with it, as the canoe is in great shape except for the canvas I'm really looking forward to starting the restoration .

 

Don't forget that we love pictures, Jon. It would be interesting to compare the planking pattern with that of the Morris, so once the old canvas is off, it would be fun to see what it looks like.