The Old Town Canoe Company
Build Record Archive Project
A Joint Project of the WCHA and Old Town Canoe Company
Most members of the Wooden Canoe Heritage Association (WCHA) who find an antique Old
Town canoe want to know how old it is and learn more about its history.
Fortunately, most of the original records from building these canoes are still
available from the factory. This unique treasure has been saved before natural
decay or some unfortunate accident deprived historians and the thousands of Old
Town canoe owners of a chance to trace the roots of their cherished canoes. The
electronic archive project preserved this chronicle of canoe history at Old Town
and made it more available for future research. The WCHA, Johnson Worldwide
Associates (JWA), the corporate parent of the Old Town Canoe Company, Jeff and
Jill Dean, Bill Clements, and many others have all made substantial financial
contributions to this project.
The build records consist of several hundred thousand paper cards with hand written notes
about how and when a canoe was built. They contain: specific construction
details about each canoe; the dates when each stage of production was completed;
the name and address of the original purchaser; and other related
information.
Computer scanning preserves the records like an electronic photocopy. This
information is even more useful in a database. It is then possible to search for
specifics like how many green sixteen foot canoes were built in a given year or
how many canoes were produced with design number four? The information could
also be made available through this web site at some point in the future. It
will take some work to offer a service which would allow you to type in a
canoe's serial number and see the original model, ship date, color, and other
details.
Volunteers are creating a canoe database now by
exchanging information over the internet. They review the scanned card's images
on their PC and key the most important information into an electronic mail
message using a standard structure. Transcribing this information takes a few
minutes per card to type. The process is simplified by using codes for the
model, paint color, shipping destination, options, etc. Over thirteen thousand
records have been transcribed in this way so far.
The preliminary findings are not very surprising to anyone who is familiar
with old canoes. Most of the Old Town canoes were shipped with no options (58%),
in CS grade (51%), dark green (45%), sixteen feet long (34%), HW models (23%),
shipped to customers in New York (23%), and left the factory during the month of
May (18%). This is based on a 7% sample of 13890 cards ranging from serial
number 1604 to 200999 that were shipped from Old Town between January 29th, 1905
and July 21st, 1979. Authors like Sue Audette have used information from this
database to help write about the company. It is a great resource for canoe
restorers, researchers, historians, authors, and any other interested persons.
This kind of research provides some answers but also tends to raise other
interesting new questions like the ones listed below.
-
Why was the War Shipping Administrator for the Government of Haiti in New
Orleans shipped a Lapstrake Rowboat in 1944? It's a long row from New Orleans
to Haiti. They wisely chose to leave it natural and didn't have it painted
with their bright national colors.
-
What did the Peterborough Canoe Company do with the seven HW models that
they purchased between 1906 and 1914?
-
Who was Sail Sleds, Inc. and what did the batch of nineteen foot boats
that Old Town made for them in 1929 look like?
-
Where is the canoe with serial number 200,000 now? Automobile
manufacturers and other companies make a big event when one of their products
reaches a major serial number milestone. Old Town assigned 200,000 to an
ordinary fiberglass canoe and shipped it to Rhode Island in 1976. A small note
on the back of the card from 1983 indicates "R. I. Police has." I fear that
this canoe has met a sad end.
This project
has not suffered the same fate thanks to some tremendous help from the WCHA,
JWA, the Maine Watercraft Museum, the Downeast Chapter of the WCHA, and a large
number of dedicated volunteers. The contributions allowed over two hundred and
twenty five thousand records to be scanned. This included all of the fourteen
thousand Carleton Canoe Company cards, some repair records and the Old Town
Canoe Company cards up to two hundred and eleven thousand.
Special thanks are due to: Samuel Johnson, R. C. Whitaker, John Blass, Steve
Krautkremer, John Shelley, Tim Hewitt, Sue Audette, Dave Baker, Tom MacKenzie,
Geoffrey Burke, Mary Lou Shouse, Julie McCrum, Ralph Kohn, Al Bratton, Jack
Gregg, Steve Gurney, Jeanne Bourquin, Will Ruch, Jack McGreivey, Jeff Dean, Jill
Dean, Bill Clements, Laurie Hasty, and especially to the volunteers who have helped key in
this information: Dan Miller, Dave Smits, Glenn Gillis, Allan Gillis, Bill
Whalen, Richard Peters, Elizabeth Heise, Gary Hand, Jim Atemus, Bert Drake,
Robert Barnes, Amy Stein, and Al Stein.
Please feel free to post a message in the WCHA Serial Number Forum if you
have any questions or would like additional information. Some more project
details are available in the links listed below.
