Serial Number Search

ksalisbury

New Member
Hello There,
I am trying to learn more about our Old Town canoe - serial number 16470. We would like to restore it and want to learn more about it.
Thank you so much for your help.
Kathy
 
Hello Kathy,

Old Town 16470 is a 16 foot AA (top) grade HW (heavy water)model canoe that was completed January-March of 1911. It has red Western cedar planking and closed spruce gunwales (in deciding if this is the correct record, the gunwales are a significant factor, although closed wales can be modified to open). The record states that the decks, thwarts and seat frames are maple-- yet, it says this is an AA grade canoe, which would mean the trim is mahogany. Either someone misidentified this as AA grade, or perhaps it's a fancy maple trim such as birdseye or tiger stripe-- let us know if you are able, as this is an interesting puzzle. The canoe has a keel and was shipped with a floor rack. Original color was dark red.

A canoe of this vintage wouldn't have diamond-head bolts holding the thwarts and seat frames unless added at a later time. If AA grade, the bolts holding seats and thwarts would be counter-sunk and plugged.

Should be an interesting canoe, just past its 100th birthday! It was shipped to Pittsburgh, PA, on March 14, 1911. Image of the scan of this record is attached below-- click on it to get a larger image.

This scan and several hundred thousand others were created with substantial grants from the Wooden Canoe Heritage Association (WCHA) and others. A description of the project to preserve these records is available athttp://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.

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.

More information on the Old Town Company can be found in Sue Audette's book, Old Town, Our First Hundred Years, which is available through the WCHA store and most booksellers, eBay, Amazon, and public libraries.





Kathy
 

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Thank you!

Hi Kathy,

Thank you for the information and for the quick response! We are going to take a look at those details you mentioned and get back to you with what we find. It is a bit of rough shape but we will see what we can figure out!

Happy New year and thank you again for the information!

Kathy
 
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