Old Town

The Old Town canoe with serial number 139552 is a 16 foot long, AA (or top) grade, HW (heavy water) model with red Western cedar planking, open ash gunwales, number ten canvas, a keel, and a floor rack. It was built between March and June, 1944. The original exterior paint color was dark green. It shipped on June 21st, 1944 to Wanaque, New Jersey. A scan showing 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 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 renew.

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

Benson

 

It was certainly on the mind of the man who was running the company. His 29 year old daughter was working with the American Red Cross in Europe at that time and drove a Clubmobile truck over Omaha beach in July of 1944 as shown below. See http://www.clubmobile.org/ for more information about the Clubmobiles.

Benson